Loughborough Town earn win after great comeback

LOUGHBOROUGH TOWN

MEN’S 1ST XI 3 STOURPORT MEN’S 1ST XI 2 AFTER A nervous morning wait due to the unseasonable weather the squad was relieved to get the “Let’s Go” text message from skipper Nick Morris.

In this game Loughborough were looking to show the rest of the region that they belong at the top table of Midlands hockey.

Loughborough started strongly but were caught out by a route one ball which allowed Stourport’s talisman to hit a crisp reverse stick strike into the corner of the goal to give the visitors one up early on.

Things soon went from bad to worse for Loughborough. With Town looking to hit back straight away they left themselves light in defence resulting in a short corner chance for the visitors. A good initial block fell back kindly for the Stourport striker who drilled his second shot under keeper J.Hie.

Despite being two goals down early in the game, Loughborough refused to freak out and instead managed to assert some control over the game. Towards the end of the first half, a rollercoaster couple of minutes began with Loughborough pulling a goal back.

Some neat attacking play gave Hunter the opportunity to place a shot into the backboard to make it 2-1.

With Loughborough seemingly back in the game, a piece of slack marking allowed Stourport to find a foot and win a short corner. A drag flick from Castle was well saved into the air, unfortunately being deemed dangerous. The rewarded short found a body on the line giving Stourport a chance to extend their lead and leave Loughborough facing a mountain of a second half recovery job, but Hie was to come out on top in his personal battle against the striker as he expertly saved the low flick down to his right.

A positive team talk at half time fired Loughborough up for the challenge of getting two goals and the win their play had deserved. This task was almost made harder in the first minute following the restart when an under hit Guy pass put Johnson under pressure, the make shift centre back slipped in the circle presenting the ball to an attacker. Luckily for Town the shot was straight at Hie who was able to clear the danger.

After these near misses, Loughborough decided to take the game and rev it up to get the three points. Following more sweeping attacking play, a ball was crossed in from the baseline. There, France popped up in the middle of two Stourport defenders, to get his stick to a lose ball and poke home for the equaliser.

Loughborough were sniffing for the winner which duly came mere minutes after the leveller. More great transferring around the pitch created the opportunity for Hunter to square a ball across the circle where it deflected in off an unfortunate Stourport defender.

Blame was squarely with the weatherman after blizzard like conditions briefly held up the game. With Stourport suspecting the jig was up, they adopted an allout attack style of hockey hoping to find an equaliser themselves.

In fact, it was Loughborough had the better opportunities to stretch their lead with the visitors noticeably tiring.

In the end Loughborough held on to secure a great comeback victory.