First XI v Hatch Warren

Hatch Warren U15 - 8
Bishops Waltham Dynamos U15B - 1
Testway League Division 2

A chilly breeze and soft underfoot this morning, compounded by the low sun directly behind one of the goals. This was to be a testing game for us. Dynamos began well, winning a free kick which was near enough to the goal for Rob R to trouble the keeper into a save, soon after another free kick by Jack flew just wide. Hatch Warren (HW) were swift to counter and took the lead on the break, play was slow and disjointed from both sides, Dynamos were missing some regulars and HW were obviously relying on the long ball over the top. Another break also proved too swift for Dynamos and suddenly it was 2-0. Dynamos struggled to retain any sort of decent possession with which to mount any reply, another swift attack and it became 3-0 after about 20 minutes of this really uninspiring spectacle. But it did go from bad to worse ! In the last fifteen minutes of the half Dynamos began to enjoy more possession but this only seemed to help the HW tactic and they scored a further four goals in this time, Dynamos did get one back when awarded a rather fortunate penalty which Jack smashed into the net with great confidence. It could have been a bigger gap but for JT coming out bravely to the feet of the centre forward, however, the ball was deemed to be a back-pass so JT casually saved the resulting free kick too.
Manager Adam had some work to do at half time and Dynamos took to the field for the second period with a re-shuffled line up. The game play didn't improve, still slow and scrappy by both teams, but at least Dynamos looked more assured at the back. Unfortunately, HW then showed that they can pass the ball and proceeded to score the only good goal of the match as they played a passing move right through Dynamos and had a finish to match. So, early in the second half we were looking at the possibility of acute embarrassment but the re-arranged Dynamos held HW off for the rest of the half to save a considerable amount of pride. A Rob R corner came to Tim at the far post but his effort rolled agonisingly wide, the tireless Aaron had been doing a great job up front on his own and finally had something to chase, fired a great shot on the run but the keeper was equal to it. JT again came out to feet and save well, by the end of the half Dynamos had the game on an even keel but far too late. Sam was man of the match today, repelling most of what HW threw at him. Not a game we would expect to win but it would have been much closer had Dynamos been at full strength. Hey-Ho