Pretorius and Cooper help crack Knutsford
RUNCORN I ................................................ 3 KNUTSFORD II .......................................... 2
ON Saturday Runcorn Hockey Club’s men’s first-team welcomed league leaders Knutsford to The Heath School.
The visitors came into the match boasting an unbeaten record while only conceding twice in six matches.
As expected with the way the season had started it was the visitors who were in confident mood and grabbed the opening goal within minutes.
From a penalty corner strike, Runcorn goalkeeper Roger Watt could only half save and with the ball loose one of Knutsford’s players flicked the ball high into the net.
With the lead Knutsford continued to dominate. They were helped by a poor showing from the home side as Runcorn carried on giving the ball away showing a lack of composure when in possession.
Runcorn just could not clear the ball and they gave the visitors an ideal opportunity to increase their lead when left midfielder Scott Crimes conceded a penalty stroke for a poor challenge in the penalty circle.
As everyone watched on it was the home outfit who cheered as Roger Watt dived to his right to deny a Knutsford forward a goal.
With Crimes sin-binned for a few minutes, Runcorn where scrambling in defence as the pressure increased.
As the midway point arrived in the first half and back to a full allocation Runcorn finally decided to play hockey.
From a sideline hit, Crimes, Kev Mault and Allan Watt passed the ball quickly. With options, available, Watt passed back to Mike Wakefield who sent in a first time ball to forward Ruan Pretorius.
With his back to goal, Pretorius stepped forward and sent off a reverse stick shot that found the bottom corner past a static Knutsford goalkeeper to level proceedings.
Runcorn, however, failed to build on this goal and returned to sloppy play, continuing to give away penalty corners ● which the visitors were looking for.
From one penalty corner, Knutsford regained the lead when a strike from the top of the penalty circle was deflected past Roger Watt and Runcorn headed into the interval trailing 2-1.
After a stirring half-time team-talk, Runcorn came out for the second period all fired up to improve.
What happened in the first half was not seen for the rest of the game as the home team took complete control.
Knutsford struggled to create anything in open play and their penalty corners were not as effective.
When a ball was played in the middle of the park, Crimes reacted the quickest. His first-time slap found Pretorius in the penalty circle. Despite close attention from Knutsford defenders, the Runcorn man pivoted quickly and fired a shot into the bottom corner of the net.
With the scores all level at 2-2 it was anyone’s game but it was the home side who started to look more threatening with Joe Cooper excelling again with fantastic wing play.
Runcorn created a glorious chance when forward Kyle Ludlow laid on the perfect pass for teammate Pretorius to complete his hat-trick but his shot went past the target.
Not long after Ludlow had a chance but was denied by a save and when Cooper went on a mazy run the visitors’ goalkeeper rushed out to defuse the chance. These were all warnings to the visitors, and as the game entered its final five minutes, the pivotal moment arrived. A routine pass from left-back Jon Garfield released Joe Cooper down the left wing who jinked his way past four Knutsford defenders. As he got closer to the penalty circle, Cooper cut inside into acres of space and dispatched a shot that flew past the goalkeeper to give Runcorn the lead for the first time.
With the clock ticking down Knutsford looked to try and salvage a draw but Runcorn saw out the final few minutes to gain the three points that their second half performance deserved.
Man-of-the-match honours went to Ruan Pretorius for his clinical finishing and providing a continuous outlet for Runcorn to help relieve the pressure.
This Saturday Runcorn take to the road again as they make the short trip to Chester looking for another positive result.