Strong performance at EG

The Redsox put on another outstanding performance to beat East Grinstead away 6 – 1.

East Grinstead with a squad of 15 were clearly determined to give Reading a run for their money but once again the excellent passing and control of the Redsox squad meant we had the majority of the possession, created many chances and left very little for EG.

The Redsox took the lead through a well taken goal by Steve Brady latching onto Mike Pell’s pass followed up by an excellent flowing move put away by Tim Armitage. The Redsox rotated their squad around it was good to see John Rees pay play his second 35 minutes of hockey in 2 years and once again his touch and movement of the ball was excellent left the rest of us jealous of his natural talent.

The whole squad played well with a solid defence, mobile midfield and the forwards taking some of their chances - although a number went begging including a missed penalty flick by Micky and a number of other shots fired either side of the goal. Fortunately we got a second penalty flick which Scottish Steve scored via a deflection off the Keeper's pad, this was followed by his very well taken open play goal and Mike Pell pushed in a nice angled volley at the far post.

To ensure EG were not thoroughly down-hearted Martin displayed a fine example of being caught in two minds as he rushed out to take on a rare EG attack only to stop short of the player who happily dribbled around a floundering Martin to score. Martin also made an excellent short corner save to remind us how much we appreciate his usual goal stopping prowess.

The final goal was Steve Brady’s second which was a lovely deflection from Micky’s cross from the right wing (one of the captains better contributions to the game!). So a good spread of scorers which leaves the race for top gun of the season very open.

The trip to East Grinstead started badly with Hooper making the schoolboy error of leaving his trainers at home which meant the skipper’s car had to do a U-turn and detour via Shurlock Row before heading on towards East Grinstead further schoolboy errors were committed by the skipper who started to walk back to the pitch to look for his phone only to find it was in his pocket on silent and Ian Ashby who had to go off for injury foolishly admitting that he pulled one of his muscles in his “large ass” which got the responses it deserved. The squad enjoyed a fine match tea, banter and beers with the now obligatory team selfie attached (one day we may actually get a photo on the pitch!).

The Old Cranleighans lost again leaving the Redsox clear at the top of the table with a game in hand which means we will go into the Christmas break as League Leaders (I note Rustlers and SVs are also topping their leagues and GMs second in theirs – well done all and well done Bartie!).

Next week we have EG returning to play at Reading and we also need to support the SuperVets away at Hampstead and Westminster so we will need to split the Redsox squad between the two so I hope everyone will be willing to do their bit as required!

Well done Redsox

Micky