Mixed-A 4-5 Ely City Mixed

South’s mixed took on Ely City on a mild November lunchtime at the Abbey.

Ely had been forced to travel with only eight players, after a hard Saturday, so first up some of South’s legion of available options were directed towards the visitors. These were Julie Sadler and Phil Harvey, and not least James Raikes, who not only swapped sides, but also donned the keeping kit for only the second time since leaving school.

Even with this somewhat scratch side, it was the visitors who began strongest, going two up within the opening five minutes. First a bouncing ball was rammed home with a reverse stick effort after a high glove save from South keeper, Lou, and then a counterattack sprung Ely guest Phil Harvey free in the right channel. He drove into the circle and wound up for a big shot. Only to top it, which took the pace off and sent it wide of the left post, which wrong-footed and confused South's defence and left Ely’s winger with a simple finish.

After that poor start, South began to exert themselves. Rupert, Chris, Gemma and Liles were combining well in the midfield, and this allowed South to test James’s keeping skills with a number of shots. Unfortunately, they proved pretty damned good. He has been hiding this light under a bushel, hasn’t he? Especially impressive was a charge out to narrow Rob G’s angles when clean through, forcing the speedy centre forward to drag his shot wide. Towards the end of the half, South finally found a way past when Kev drove down the right flank to the byline and pulled the ball back to Chris B who, with a turn and a shimmy, was in open space and able to flick past James from five yards.

Some half-time rejigging, with an umpire swap of Rich for Jan, was quickly exploited by Ely. Before the new defence had settled down, the Ely centre-forward managed to move off his marker (move off his marker by, erm, about thirty yards. Reader, that marker was I…), just about collect a shelled pass from Phil in midfield, and place a classy shot on the spin inside Lou’s far corner.

South went looking for a way back, and came mighty close when Gemma’s shot from the top of the circle require a full stretch kick away from James. However, not only did he save it, he also found a teammate with the kick allowing Ely to launch a high speed counter with South’s midfield caught in the opposition 25. Nice, sharp ball movement saw the outnumbered South rearguard bypassed and the Ely left winger was in free, running at Lou. Rupert, desperately trying to scramble back put in a (stick-) tackle on her as she was shooting. A clear penalty flick, or it would have been had Rupert’s efforts not deflected the ball straight past Lou.

Four-one down and all might have seemed lost, but that wasn’t really so. South were actually holding the midfield well and Ely’s defence was being to look tired. Spare men in the 25 were being created by some nice off-the-ball running and a goal back was found when another James R save only fell to Chris B, who again had a flicked goal from a handful of yards. Four-two quickly became four-three from a short. Simple routine with comedic effect. Rupert injects fast, Gemma cracks the ball at the corner, James R does the splits whilst failing in his attempt to reach it, and then falls forward on his face.

If South could just score the next goal, a win in a mixed game was on. If, if, if… The defence dawdles on a ball and gets mugged, the Ely centre-forward breaks into the circle and plays a lovely cross goal pass taking out Lout to his winger and she gently taps home for 5-3. Damn.

But even then, there is still time, and South are quickly back to within one, with the best team goal off the game. Jan breaks up an Ely attack in his own circle and passes out hard to Liles in midfield (Gemma showing greatly agility to jump over the ball as it rocketed towards her feet from near point-blank range at it’s source). Liles takes the ball up, pulls the left back central and then slips it down the open wide channel she has worked to Rob G, who is looping his run around into the zone. Rob picks up, drives to the byline and fires into the centre, where the diving Chris B gives the move the finish it deserved. Classy goal.

Back within one, but with time fast running out. A short is won. The final whistle blows. It’s now or never. We don’t manage a clean routine, with Gemma being met at the opt of the circle by the Ely defence before she can get her shot away. But we keep things alive and ship the ball on by Gemma, Rupert, Rob to Jodee on the far post, who whacks home. 5-5! Or not, as it turned out Rob had shipped it on with his size 10, and Rich had spotted it. So it ended 5-4 to Ely.

Apart from the final result from a partisan point of view, this was exactly what Sunday mixed friendlies are meant to be about. Played in an excellent spirit between two good sides, with goals and play nicely interspersed with people trying things, not always successfully, that Saturday league hockey wouldn’t allow. We look forward to February’s return match, where hopefully we will be the ones with the odd goal in our favour.

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Chris Baker
Player of the Match

For a hat-trick and good driving midfield performance, on the back of two curries and eight beers imbibed on Saturday night in celebration of the firsts win.