Brief EH Trophy Stint Ends in Guernsey

In Crawley Hockey Club's first ever appearance in the England Hockey Trophy they were pitted against a team who have reached the final for the last 4 years and winning the competition on one of those occasions. The 7am meet time for a 12.30pm game was reminiscent of a trip to Canterbury or Cliftonville but never has the location been Gatwick Airport South Terminal.

After a short flight and bus ride, the team arrived at the newly built Footes Lane Hockey Ground in the middle of the island, home of Hockey in Guernsey. Whilst the juniors were taking part in their Sunday morning training sessions, the team were tucking into refreshments provided by the home team and headed to the changing rooms at 11am to prepare for their encounter. Following a narrow, battling defeat at the hands of Tunbridge Wells the day before, there were some stiff legs but there was plenty of time for the team to loosen themselves off before push back.

The game started much like the day before with the home team showing their attacking intent early on. Crawley found themselves on the back foot and with the game being played much in the away team's half it wasn't long before the first Guernsey short corner. Luckily for Crawley it was not converted and after 15 minutes under pressure they began to move the ball around and make attacks of their own. However, the first breakthrough came for Guernsey from a well worked passage of play resulting in the ball in the back of the net and huge cheers from the capacity crowd. Chris White was forced to make some good saves throughout the half and when the ball fell to a Guernsey striker from 5 yards out, White managed to get a glove on the shot but the ball just crept across the line for 2-0. There were a few words at half time spoken about structure and discipline.

The second half continued as the first finished. Alex Watson and Hasan Yousaf were being made to work hard in the middle of the park to stay with their men and create opportunities to springboard an attack and the forward line were working tirelessly to keep pressure on the opposition. Some good pace from Brendan Maccaoilte down the flanks offered the away team an opportunity to test Guernsey's defence but they stood strong and regained possession well. Mid-way through the half Guernsey were awarded a short corner which they duly converted to take the score to 3-0. A Watson breakaway in the middle looked to create a chance but he was fouled with a stick tackle and the home player being sent to the sin bin for 5 minutes as a result. Unfortunately Crawley were unable to make the most of the man advantage and found themselves down to 10 shortly after as Baz Ahmedi was given a green card for a stick tackle. The home team continued to apply pressure to the weary Crawley defence and scored 2 further goals to bury the game.

Crawley's captain Alex Watson spoke after the game, "They were well organised, and threatened with every attack. We tried as hard as we could to create something but just didn't have the finishing touch today. I don't think the boys should be too disheartened though, there is a lot we can take from this performance and we worked extremely hard for 70 minutes."

MOM: Hasan Yousaf
DOD: Chris Rockingham

Squad:
Chris White (GK)
Baz Ahmedi
Mark Brightwell
Adrian Bettesworth
Hasan Yousaf
Alex Watson (C)
Brendan Maccaoilte
Rob Gate
Steve Innes
Kieran Fuller
Reece Banton
James Innes
James Ortyl
James Murphy
Ian Berry
Theo Hillman