First league game of 2007 and what a cracker! Spencer made amends for the earlier league defect at Reading with a massive team performance and rock solid defence.

With field hockey games being played on both ‘normal’ Spencer pitches, this game was played on the junior pitch which is a touch smaller than usual which resulted in fast and furious action. The smaller pitch favoured defence more than attack as seen by the relatively low scoreline. Spencer scored first and we kept our noses in front all game.

Our defence was great today, in all areas of the pitch. We hustled for the ball, winning most of the ground ball battles, and long-sticks Alan Keeley and Jesse Churchward dominating the midfield. Our man-on-man defence negated most of the Reading threats and keeping them to only four goals was very pleasing.

In attack we created plenty of chances and forced the Reading keeper into numerous saves. Alas for Reading a couple of basic errors lead to an own goal from 20 yards and an open net from which Jesse rifled a shot into top left corner from the side of the pitch. However the timely Spencer goals came from Mark Davies. His second came at a point when Reading were on a high and had fought back to within two goals (at 5-3) midway through the 3rd quarter. After a few nervous moments at the start of the final quarter, Spencer played out the final minutes to seal the points.

Man-of-the-match this week was midfield dynamo Will Walker. He was up and down the field all day and set-up much of the attacking play from which others benefited. Nice work fella.

Spencer were;
Colin Byrne, Craig Simkin, Rob Gooch, Matt Blom, Jesse Churchward (2 goals), Alan Keeley, Glen Gardener, Dan Hughes, Toby Thompson, Arun Anandasegar, Colin Rutter (2), Will Walker (1), Peter Sayia, Andrew Mottershead, Mark Davies (2)