Sidmouth Veterans 4, Taunton Vale 1

A GOOD short corner to goals conversion rate saw Sidmouth progress to the third round of the English Hockey Men’s Masters national knock-out cup, writes John Goodwin.

All four of the Sidmouth goals came from short corners, the first to equalise a goal from Taunton scored during the home side’s customary slow start.

Mark Mingo got the first goal but Sidmouth’s attacks found the Taunton goallie in fine form. It was 1-1 at the break From the first short corner Keith Baker received the injection from Nick Wright and slipped the ball to his left from where skipper Mark Mingo despatched a fierce shot into the bottom corner.

The attack was denied on several occasions by the competence of the Taunton goalkeeper while Sidmouth’s last line of defence was rarely troubled as the midfield and defence found its feet with Paul Gannon, Ian Please and Simon Price particularly resilient.

It was 1-1 at half time but after the break it was mainly Sidmouth in the ascendancy with a number of short corners accruing from offences in the D.

Receiver Baker elected to shoot for goal himself on two of the occasions and struck the backboard to make it 3-1.

With the two-goal cushion Sidmouth began to play the ball about more freely with midfielders Andy Mapson, Simon Olive and Stewart Vincent working well down the flanks and crossing to cause Taunton problems in the D.

From one of the resulting short corners Baker slipped the ball to Mingo whose firm strike was helped in at the far post by Chris Olive.

A rare Taunton short corner produced a save from John Goodwin, who had been largely untroubled for most of the game, to preserve the three-goal deficit.