Lancaster 5-2 York
Previous years haven’t showed a great history for the men’s 2nds in indoor hockey, but at Roses 2012, history was to be changed.
Within the first few minutes, York jolted into an attacking formation and scored the first goal of the match with their front man proving tricky to defend against, spinning off of Lancaster’s defence to place a clear shot.
Guy Paul of Lancaster was impressive up-front and providing chances, but was denied by a clearance off the line by York’s player on the field know as “goggles”.
Lancaster gradually began to dominate although the score still wasn’t reflecting their efforts. This was until ten minutes in when Paul once again was positioned well and picked up a deflection off the post to bring the score to 1-1.
Lancaster went on the offence once again and Ian Fletcher managed to profit from one of the attacking movements as York’s defence fumbled the ball, raising the score to 2-1 with York beginning to trail. However, soon after Lancaster’s successful rally of attacks, York managed to begin to string a neat succession of passes together and within fifteen minutes, the score was brought to 2-2 as everything once again became level at the end of the first half.
The second half started much like the first with little to separate the two sides early on. Lancaster sometimes looked a bit scrappy at the back as York began to gather possession, but weren’t converting any chances to score.
Lancaster were given a moment of luck when they were awarded a short corner which captain Prem Marwaha placed into the path of Sam Critch who fired the ball into York’s goal. Moments later, Marwaha was driving play forward and causing problems for York’s defence. When their only option was to bring him down, he was awarded with another short corner which he accurately placed back into the path of Critch who scored his second goal of the game as the score increased to 4-2.
York weren’t quite finished yet, as they were still threatening and forced Lancaster into an off the line goal clearance towards the end of the game keeping Lancaster on their toes. However, Marwaha remained more of a threat on the attack and once again provided for his team as he picked up his second assist of the match in setting up Adam Carr to score the final goal of the game shortly before the final whistle.
On congratulating captain Marwaha at the end of the victory, he said he felt “proud of my team, it was fantastic in the end, it was a great win that was the first for Lancaster in this event in four years”.
