Barrington Sports Div 3 NWHL

Preston 3's 3-7 Keswick 1's

Morgan x3
Proctor x2
Jackson
McCully

After a fairly hard pre season of blood & sweat spilt, Keswick men’s 1st XI finally got to start their campaign with kind support from Leslie Cleeland. This first league match down the M6 to Preston would certainly not be easy.
Sadly travelling without three regular players, Clive Swanston, Chris Mattear & Rikki Barnes all had to break the bad news to the skipper, but this was nothing new to the team and as ever there was plenty of willing and well deserving players to step in and take charge.
As the game started one could see all both teams were very eager, having their fair share of possession moving the ball with purpose and testing each other to see who would make the first move on their opposition. As the game progressed & the pace quickened, the Keswick back four where put to the test. Solid defensive work form “the wall” of James Fennell and the long awaited returned of Elliot Desert from injury made their presence well known several times, also Wilson and Sutton holding the Preston wingers at bay effectively when required,
Finally when Keswick got into top gear Luke Heap started to make his assault on the Preston keeper and kept him on his toes but couldn’t find the back of the net. Preston were holding strong and wouldn’t back down but it was the visitors that would get to break the deadlock. After 10 minutes a well practised short corner routine found skipper Thomas Morgan hitting the back board to go 1-0 up. Preston did not take to this with open arms & quick passing and skilful moving took the game to 1-1, before Keswick could breath they lost “their wall” Fennell. From what we can make out, Desert using his own body as a bull dozer injured the newlywed man as the clashed making a tackle and had to retire for the rest of the game...
As the game moved on tired legs were already showing a few tactical changes from player/manager Mark Bowen were made. He brought himself on along with Ryan McCully, who has proved in the pre season that hard work does get rewarded!
From this change Keswick took charge once again. Slick play from Paul Randell and Robert Owen in the midfield opened up pockets in the Preston defence for Bowen to pick winger Morgan out, who rounded the defence with pace and slotted the ball across the keeper in to the top corner, the lead was restored 2-1. This sparked Mark Proctor to get himself on the score sheet with another well worked routine down the left youngster McCully dribbling his way though the Preston 25 picking Proctor who smashed the ball home to make it 3-1,
Preston battled hard and when on goal couldn’t find a way Dave Harris, who himself was put to the test at times & made three superb saves in quick succession. Preston’s fitness was starting show as the half was coming to a close Sutton started to turn heads as he used the overlap down the right to his advantage after several attacks he won what would be the last play of the half, short corner to Keswick. Once again Morgan fired the ball into the goal that took a neat deflection off the keeper into the top corner to put the visitors 4-1 at the break.
In the second half Keswick kept their foot on hard down and were hungry for more goals, with some great play from Heap testing the keeper again at every opportunity, but it was man of the match Proctor who would have his day and his second goal of the game. Rob Owen firing the ball in the oppositions circle and with a deflection up into the keeper the ball fell to Charlie Jackson who with time picked the unmarked Proctor who calmly put it bottom corner and made it 5-1, five soon became six as McCully who picked up his debut goal. From the back Morgan put through an aerial ball taking several players out down the line, finding Jackson who teamed up with Proctor to find McCully back for an easy tap in past the bamboozled keeper. A score line of 6-1 had somewhat gone to the visiting sides heads and lack of marking and lazy defending all round, Preston started to fight back with two quick goals. With the score at 6-3 Keswick were on the back foot, and needed to react quickly. After collecting themselves together Keswick shut up shop as the home side couldn’t find a way down the flanks with Owen and Wilson linking up well & soaking up any play down the left flank. Sutton and Morgan covered the right forcing Preston to play down the middle where all they could find was another dead end with superb work from Randell, Elliot and Bowen. Confidence started to build again for Keswick and they truly sealed the game with one more final blow to the score line with Preston throwing players forward endeavouring to break through, it doesn’t always pay off as the home sides defence was left light and a quick break from the back found Bowen in space squaring the ball to Jackson who also got his debut goal for the team by placing the ball past the keeper ending the game 7-3.
A great game but in some what a challenging 1st game of the season and Keswick hope to build on this performance next week when they face locale rivals South Lakes. In past encounters a match that could go either way with a few sore bodies’s to match!