Runcorn miss out to Ramblers but can take positives from display

Deeside V 3 Runcorn I 1 RUNCORN Hockey Club’s men’s first-team returned to action in the North West Hockey League Division Five South as they travelled into the Cheshire countryside to play Deeside Ramblers.

As the game started the visitors were feeling in confident mood but could not get control of the match as the hosts dictated the opening exchanges.

With Deeside continuing to apply pressure, Runcorn were getting pushed further back defending their goal and struggling to find a way out.

Despite the home side controlling the flow of the match they only created half-chances that were easily dealt with by the battling Runcorn rearguard.

But just as Runcorn seemed to be stamping their own authority, the opening goal arrived via an unfortunate bounce of the ball.

As Deeside sent the ball high into the air, Runcorn right-back Jonny Corke superbly intercepted.

But as the ball fell to the ground, the bounce fell nicely to a Deeside attacker who took a couple of steps into the penalty circle and found the bottom corner of the net past goalkeeper Roger Watt.

With a deserved lead, the Ramblers confidently moved the ball around the pitch and push forward again.

If anything this helped the visitors as gaps started to appear which Runcorn looked to exploit. On one occasion left winger Mike French went clear of the home side’s defence. He drew out the goalkeeper, then squared the ball to Pete Jones who sadly snatched at his shot and put it wide of the target.

This did not stop Runcorn and within minutes they evened the score up. After a couple of robust challenges, the ball found its way to Ben Cooper at the top of the penalty circle. With his back to goal he passed the ball to forward Allan Watt who let it run across his body and swept the ball into the goal on his reserve stick.

As half-time approached it was the visitors who were in the ascendency and had a glorious chance to take the lead. With a simple hit down the pitch, Allan Watt was clean through bearing down on the penalty circle. But as quickly he approached, the Deeside keeper was quicker and narrowed the shooting angle and defused the opportunity to leave matters all-square at the break.

If anything the half-time whistle benefited the Rambers as they re-arranged personnel and opened the second period as they had at the start of the first.

This time, though, Deeside took advantage of the pressure and restored their lead. After a couple of failed passing moves with their penalty corners they went for a straight hit that found the bottom corner via the stick off centre-back Ben McKay who was covering on the goalline.

Within minutes the Ramblers increased their lead with another moment of luck.

Their right-back brought the ball forward and his attempted long pass was misshit wrong-footing two Runcorn defenders. The ball found its way to the unintended target and the Deeside centreforward skilfully found his way into the penalty circle and created a small opening to then emphatically strike home high into the net.

With a two-goal cushion Deeside dropped deeper allowing the visitors more of the ball.

But despite all the efforts from midfielders Scott Crimes, Kev Mault and Joe Cooper, luck was not on Runcorn’s side and the Ramblers managed the remainder of the match to the final whistle and seal the win.

Runcorn’s player-of-thematch went to goalkeeper Roger Watt who produced a number of high-quality saves to keep the visitors in the match.

Despite the result there was plenty of positives to take from the game and Runcorn will looking to open their account next Saturday when they entertain Bangor City at The Heath School (1.30pm).