Chiswick Dispatched

As the Wormwood Scrubs clock chimed 3 o’clock there were alas only 7 Redsox players ready to go. Fortunately, the Chiswick captain understood the challenge of London traffic on a Saturday in December better than the country folk of the Redsox and allowed us a few minutes extra…Indeed, Chiswick played the whole game in a great spirit and attitude which made the game even more enjoyable.

As so often in these cases there is a goal in the first minute. The surprising thing was that it was to us! Lawro slotting in an early short corner rebound. With the extra man in midfield the Redsox were able to take reasonable control of the game although a couple of cheap turnovers kept Chiswick interested.

A very good break left Robbo with an empty goal. He took his time, allowed a defender to get back on the line and then completely deceived him with a complete mis-push which never reached the backboard. Genius!

We continued to create the better of the chances and plenty of short corners. One of which ended in a flick which Monty duly tried to send to the inmates – it just got stopped by the high netting behind the goal. Chiswick then went down the other end and scored off a fortunate short corner. 2-1 at HT rather than what could have been 3-0.

There were few in the team to remember the scars of Richmond and in the second half the Redsox played even better creating wave after wave of fluid attacking hockey and plenty of short corners. One of these let to Charlie scoring after some neat work by Bob and just before the final whistle Robbo struck a powerful shot that went just inside the post and rattled the backboard.

Overall, a great game, solid (mostly) defence, midfield working hard and playing some lovely short passing moves and the forwards creating space from good leading runs.

Unfortunately we lost Hamish and Lawro on the way to the pub but those that made it were treated to a very good tea and relieved that they didn’t have to pose for some stupid selfie.

Well done and thanks to everyone. Not the strongest opposition but some good controlled hockey and an enjoyable afternoon to compensate for some of the painful driving.