A still calm sunny Sunday in Hamble welcomed the Gosport U14’s for today’s lunchtime pushback. After a solid warm up and tactical brief with the new formation laid out on the smart board the team lined up to take pushback. Some early pressure from Hamble was countered by an aggressive press from Gosport which resulted in the first goal for Gosport scored by Captain Tomas. Straight from pushback Gosport pressed again and after smart link up play between Angharad, Oliver and James the final pass through to Tomas was hit firmly into the goal to double the lead. Lilian and James were working well on the left hand side of the pitch creating some great circle entries that the Hamble defenders & goalkeeper had to work hard to keep them out. When Hamble got into the final third the ever present Gosport defence were equal to it and Joel mopped up playing though to the midfield pair Oliver & Lily who then likened through to the forward lines for Ash & Danny to pounce to again test the GK.
William pressed hard off of a Hamble sixteen restart to drive into the circle and dispatch a stunning strike into the goal, the hit was so powerful the GK could not manage to keep it out on this occasion. More pressure had seen Hamble pulled out of shape trying to mark shadows at times with the superb movement of the Gosport players which created more shooting opportunities for William G and Ash but the score remained 0-3 at half time.

Some lovely oranges were provided by Hamble as refreshment for halftime while Coach Stu laid out the plan for the second half. Thank you so much for this!

The second half had more of the same action for Gosport with the team pushing hard to increase their lead. Some great tackles by The Backline managed to stifle the Hamble attack but when they did get through 1v1 Ryan who had remained focused in the Gosport goal managed to deal with what they threw at him. A quick counter attack finished off by Tomas put Gosport 0-4 up. The game ebbed and flowed in the Hamble half for a while with great pressure from the Gosport front lines.
A stunning pass from Angharad off of Jake’s great tackle played into Oliver in midfield who gave a cheeky look and dummy saw the ball play through to Tomas who slipped the ball passed the Hamble GK to make it 0-5.
At full time there were smiles all round from both sides which was nice to see.
A special mention to Lilian, James & William for their full league debut today, you all played superbly and we are looking forward to seeing your hockey journey this season.
Great effort from Hamble today, you never gave up and credit to you all and coaching staff.

Coach Stuart Blower