Stockton’s Over 40 veterans (Teessiders) produced an excellent performance to make their way into the NOW Pensions Master’s Trophy final with a 4-2 win over the national league club, Khalsa. Getting a home draw for the semi-final was certainly a bonus but they knew the opponents would be a strong outfit. During the warm up it was interesting to see how much penalty corner practice Khalsa performed. During the game it was clear that this was their main tactic.
The game started with both teams having plenty of possession but no clear goal scoring chances. Khalsa passed the ball very well in the middle of the pitch but struggled to get into the Teessiders circle due to some excellent marking and tackling. Gary Ferguson, Martin Harrison and Pete Morton began to dominate the midfield but were equally supported by their team mates. Having the 16 man squad was certainly an advantage with regular substitutions enabling fresh legs to constantly press and harass the Khalsa defence. In attack the Teessiders needed to be more patient with the ball and not rush to get the ball into the circle.
The deadlock was broken in the 12th minute when a quick ball from defence set Derek Moore off on a run down the right wing. Once over the 22m line he fired in a pass to Dennis Hooton in the circle. He swept the ball and caught it perfectly to fire it past the stationary goalkeeper. Another similar attack saw Derek reach the bye line and his pull back was good but defended well by Khalsa. The game was held up briefly due to the umpire, Tim Dunn injuring his achilles. Fortunately, Simon Jones who was the technical advisor was in a position to take over and swapped roles with Tim.
Once the game was restarted the Teessiders were certainly dominating the possession. They were restricting Khalsa to hitting long balls that were either intercepted or left to go off the bye line. In the 20th minute the Teessiders were awarded a penalty corner. It was injected rapidly by Dave Skirving to Martin. He stopped it and neatly moved the ball to his right to Gary F. Gary had time to hit a shot. Although the keeper got his legs to the ball it still managed to squeeze through into the goal. Khalsa best chance came with a penalty corner. It was firmly struck by Adrian Betts but Mal Teasdale in goal was equal to it and cleared it to the side line. 2-0 at half time.
In their previous match the Teessiders also found themselves two up at half time but then let it slip in the second half before making a dramatic comeback. They were determined not to let the same thing happen again and kept up the pressure and pace. In the 52nd minute came the goal of the match. Some fantastic short quick passing down the right and into the circle by Derek, Gary F, Martin and Mike Lakinski took the defenders and keeper out of the game. This led to a cross to Dennis who had the simple job of putting the ball into an empty goal. Just three minutes later it was 4-0 when Geoff Bunn fired in a shot that may have been deflected a couple of times. The Teessiders had further chances to score more goals from Gary Stobbs and Gary F but the defence and keeper kept them out.
In the last ten minutes the Teessiders seem to take their foot off the pedal. This led to the Khalsa attack getting into the shooting circle and winning some penalty corners. Two quick goals came from these and also the Teessiders were reduced to 10 with a yellow card to Russ Philpott, although he was convinced the umpire got the wrong man. At 4-2 everyone on the Teessiders dug in and managed to run down the clock to make it to the final.
The whole squad would like to thank the supporters. Throughout this match and the previous games they have certainly been heard. Everyone in the squad really appreciated this and hope some of them will make the journey to final.
There opponents will be Henley on Sunday 4th May at Beeston Hockey club, Nottingham.