Mens 5s vs Bedford Mens 6

Bedford Mens 5XI took the long journey to face Bedford Mens 6XI for a highly anticipated showdown.

The Mens 6XI dominated most of the play in the first half though failed to create much with their high possession style of play. The 5XI created a few chances on the counter attack but to no avail. Until, that is, later in the half when Alex Smallwood drilled a low ball into the D, it deflected off the outstretched stick of James Logan and past the goalkeeper to make it 1-0 to the away side. A matter of minutes later Elliot Potter made one of his trademark runs into the right hand side of the D before cutting it back for Logan to sweep it past the outstretched keeper.

The first half ended 2-0 to the 5XI.

The second half started with the 5XI doing a better job of holding onto possession, limiting the 6XI's ability to play their own game far better than before the break. However, confusion in the defensive D saw James Sceats slide the ball past Alex Brown in goal to peg the lead back to just the one goal.

At the other end soon after Tony Sawyer found Tony Gammon with a lifted pass which was controlled expertly before being hit on the half volley, crashing into the back of the goal to restore the two goal lead.

With the lead now restored the 6XI began to push higher up the pitch allowing the 5XI to hit them with counter attacks regularly, Elliot Potter and James Pagliaro causing them all sorts of trouble with runs from deep. One of these runs led to the ball being fed through to James Logan on the top of the D, once turned towards goal he dragged the ball back away from the receding defender and lifted it over the oncoming keeper. The ball dropping into the empty net to complete his hattrick and make it 4-1.

Shortly afterwards Pagliaro broke through the midfield, squaring the ball to Logan to the left of the D. A first time flick round the keeper was heading towards the far corner, only for Pagliaro to tap it over the line.

The score now at 5-1 the goals didn't stop coming, a short corner was played to Tony Gammon who was able to flick his effort into the right hand side of the goal for his second of the match. Little time was left on the clock when Potter broke into the D once more and found Logan with a cut back, who slammed the ball home past the helpless keeper to give him four for the day and make the final score 7-1.

A resounding win for the 5XI leaving them second in the table with a healthy goal difference of +15.