Gorleston Hockey Club

Gorleston Men’s Hockey Club entertained Bury St Edmund’s 1st XI after slipping into the penultimate position in the League following a string of defeats. Despite this poor run of results, the team took strength from good performances in many of those games and started this game strongly.

With an almost full squad, Gorleston had the luxury of numerous rolling substitutes to use and it was the home side who created the best opportunities in the first 20 minutes with a deflection from Crawford wide of the mark number of Bury goal; a great interception from Long resulting in a short corner; a surging run from Lilly with another shot wide of the mark; a shot from Hudson saved on the line, Gorleston were exerting consistent pressure on the Bury back line.

Bury came back into the game though and an even contest developed, with Bury moving the ball around the pitch well but rarely able to get around Gorleston’s midfield pairing of Andrew Lilly and Richard Pallant, both playing monumental games for the Gorleston team. A Bury forward made an interception to charge into the Gorleston circle, but Keeper Barney King made a pin-point tackle to rob the player and return the ball to the Gorleston defence.

Scoring first was going to be important in this game and it was the home team who made the breakthrough late on in the half. Right from the back, Gorleston played the ball around the pitch until Mark Vaudin broke down the right wing and sent a teasing ball into the Bury circle. The initial shot was saved by the Bury Keeper and cleared at the second attempt, but only back to Vaudin who crashed the ball home to the delight of the Gorleston team.

Bury surged back looking to equalise and in previous week’s Gorleston have conceded when on top of the game. This week was different, with Jamie Higginbotham and Rob Harlow commanding at the centre of the home defence, Bury never got a look in at the Gorleston goal. When they did win a series of short corner’s the impressive Pallant snuffed out every attempted shot.

Leading at half time, Gorleston took confidence and identified the key player in Bury’s team. A tactical change saw a man to man marking job in place for the second half and this definitely hampered Bury’s attempts to get onto the score sheet. The second half was a disciplined and patient one for the home side, keeping hold of the ball for good periods of time and frustrating the Bury midfield. Martyn Vaudin a good example, playing a wider role than normal and constantly advancing into the Bury half of the pitch with the ball.

Even when Hudson was harshly adjudged to have impeded a Bury player and sent from the pitch, Gorleston remained on top despite being a player short. Bury became more and more desperate with one player lucky to stay on the pitch after flattening the charging MacDonald and eventually losing a player to the Sin Bin just as Hudson returned to the fray. Credit goes to the team for keeping to the basic premise that if Gorleston had the ball, Bury could not score, exemplified by Mark Vaudin holding the ball amongst a crowd of Bury players in the corner of the pitch for minutes at a time as the clock ticked down.

Bury were not finished though and were awarded two short corners in the final three minutes of the game, the second as time ran out. The defensive unit again able to prevent Bury getting a clean strike on goal and averting the danger with aplomb. At the final whistle, a win at last for Gorleston and perhaps the possibility of securing more points towards survival in this league before the Christmas break, with a trip to Cambridge University next week, a team who have also been struggling this season.

Squad: B King (C), K MacDonald, R Harlow, H Cheung, J Higginbotham, Martyn Vaudin, S Harris, M Reyment; S Long, A Lilley, Mark Vaudin, R Pallant, R Crawford, N Hudson.