Sidmouth defence is top drawer

lee.glanville@archant.co.uk
27 November 2009

Action from Sidmouth men's hockey A team

ECV Hornets 0, Sidmouth 3

On the back of an unlucky defeat the previous week to league leaders Taunton Vale, fourth placed Sidmouth travelled to third placed ECV Hornets confident of at least a share of the points.

Relentless rain certainly put a dampener on the game and, for a few moments, it appeared that the all-weather pitch at St Peter's School in Exeter was not able to cope with the deluge as some waterlogging appeared on the pitch.

The game did go ahead, nonetheless, and a slightly altered Sidmouth team started the game the more cautious of the two sides. In his final game for the club before departing to Canada for the Ice Hockey season, former National League player Tom Mason was keen to go out on a bang.

Nick Wade was unavailable to travel, which left the door open for Toby Devine to make his first team debut.

Having soaked up much of the host's early pressure, Sidmouth got into a rhythm and controlled the match according to their game plan, building platforms and playing second phase hockey off the solid Scott Rowson. Byron Fitzgerald has made the attacking centre-half position his own in recent weeks, combining well with Rowson and linking in and around the final third of the pitch well with Andrew Welch and Devine.

The injection of pace that the midfield has seen since Lewis dropped back to right half and Bobby Brown entered the lineup saw the visitors pressurise their opponents, forcing a short corner which top scorer Paul Gannon fired past the Hornets' keeper via a defender.

A few moments of conjecture passed between the two umpires as to whether the goal should stand, but senior local umpire Martin Stoneman (who is used to umpiring at a higher level) awarded the visitors the lead.

A second short corner from Gannon was later well saved by the home defence, only for Mason to be on hand to force the tap-in home to make it 2-0.

Spurred on by the Sidmouth Ladies' 2nd team who had re-routed from their abandoned game versus Dawlish to cheer on the club's flagship team, Sidmouth added a third, courtesy of Mason. He promptly substituted himself to avoid a potential hat-trick and purchase of the customary celebratory jug of beer .

The match saw, statistically, the best defence in the league versus the second best, but Sidmouth confirmed top spot in that respect thanks to their first clean sheet of the season.

This weekend, Sidmouth host Bridgwater at Sidmouth College - 1.30pm start.