New Year Same Result

Walking into the Reading changing room before the Crawley match on Saturday
was to be transported back years to the early days of the Redsox (or maybe
even as far back as the Glam Rock days of the 1970s) with the likes of
Gregory, Wright, Lowe, Denehy, Taylor, Fitt & Wilcox all gingerly limbering
up for the first game after too many festive weeks. The throwback was
completed with the support of Ashe, Radnedge & Barton on the touchline and
later Robbo in the bar.

During the preceding week there had been some doubt as to whether Crawley
would be able to raise a team for the fixture but to their credit they
arrived with 11 keen players and quickly took the game to the Redsox playing
good flowing hockey around a Redsox side who appeared to be still digesting
their Christmas puddings; within 20 minutes Crawley went 2 - 0, which would
have been 3-0 but for an outstanding diving save from Martin.

Fortunately their second goal sparked Mike Sartorius into an individual
burst of brilliant and aggressive determination as he drove into their
circle and crashed an unstoppable shot past their keeper, this goal in turn
sparked the Redsox into life with further goals soon coming from Laurie via
a Wright pass from the bye-line and Charlie Lowe with a strong short corner
shot right down the middle to surprisingly beat the keeper.

The half time arrival of Soma (hot foot from an English Channel school trip
to Seaford) brought composure and a touch of class to our forward line. The
rest of the team was by now playing much better vets hockey, driven on well
by Paxo & Damon in the middle and benefitting from fresh legs as Bartie rang
regular changes in our large squad; this left Crawley struggling for
possession and resorting to hopeful long balls as they tired. As our play
improved so did our scoring with second half goals from a well taken reverse
shot by Bob, beating both the keeper and a flying defender's stick, two well
taken chances from fast-hands Soma and the last another from Laurie - with
a late touch on a Soma effort.

Big thanks to Mikes Gray and Keiller for blowing well, Bartie for juggling a
big squad and to our touchline / bar supporters; together we managed to put
a smile on Abdul's face with our biggest bar bill of the season as the squad
enjoyed catching up with each other and our growing fan club. See attached
the obligatory bar selfie.

Redsox have extended their lead at the top of Div 2 to eight points so well
done all and we now have an impressive twenty different goal scorers from
our 11 games to date. Next week we have Bromley and Beckenham away so will
need all hands to the pump to make sure the winning streak continues.

Game on

Micky