Robinsons 6, Sidmouth HC Vets 1

SIDMOUTH Hockey Club’s veteran team exited the national Masters Cup at the last 16 stage for the second year to the disappointment of a large travelling contingent of supporters who made the trip to Bristol, writes John Goodwin.

The visitors were on the defensive straight from the kick off and Robinsons had a shot saved before a Sidmouth stick had touched the ball.

Robinsons took the lead with a perfectly executed drag flick from a short corner, but there was a swift riposte when a short corner at the other end saw Keith Baker strike the ball wide of the goalkeeper. The shot was saved by a combination of a defender’s stick and foot but astute advantage play by the umpire allowed Graham Pidgeon to hit the ball home.

That was a rare venture by Sidmouth into their opponents’ D and it wasn’t long before Sidmouth’s defence was under pressure again. It gave way when goalkeeper John Goodwin made a save only for the ball to fall for an attacker to place the rebound home.

A further goal made it 3-1 at half time.Robinsons spent their half time altering their tactics so that instead of raining shots in from the edge of the D, they sought to get the ball to the by-line and pull it back across the goal to wrong foot the defence and pull the goalkeeper out of position.

The ploy yielded three more goals to complete an emphatic scoreline. The Man of the Match votes were spread among the defence where Ian Please, Paul Gannon and Goodwin did their best to keep the rampant Robinson side at bay.

Mingo ran tirelessly, Ian Mackie struck a number of piercing long distance passes, Simon Olive caused a problem or two. Robinsons followed up their victory by proving excellent post match hosts.