10/10/15: We started the day with 12 players for our away trip to Keynsham but arrived pitch side with 10 due to unforeseen circumstances. Undeterred we took the game to Keynsham early on and 10 mins in, after a shocking tackle on Chris Hampshire, was awarded a penalty corner which was dispatched by James England after a goal mouth scramble. Despite us scoring, the umpire decided not to punish the perpetrator which didn’t sit well with Mendip, so as captain I queried the curious decision to be told that Mendip as a team were now on a warning. Chris Hampshire queried that decision and was shown a green card. Vexed, he expressed his opinion of the umpire’s decision making and was shown a straight red. Down to 9 players for the remaining hour, Mendip rearranged the team to a more defensive nature and against the run of play found themselves 2-0 up with another goal from James England. Keynsham launched attack after attack at the Mendip goal and were rewarded with a goal just before half time.
The 2nd half was far more defensive from a Mendip point of view with some good guidance by Rich Warwick on how to defend a slender lead with 9 players vs a team of 11 younger players who also had 3 subs. Keynsham attacked again and again and despite some excellent defending had numerous chances but failed to convert any of them. We hoped for an opportunity to counter them on the break and that chance came with Rich Warwick beating a number of players before crossing for James England to complete his hat-trick. Keynsham heads dropped even lower when a few minutes later, James England yet again received a through ball, beat a few players and then sublimely reverse sticked the ball past the keeper for his fourth and possibly a contender for goal of the season. In fairness to Keynsham, they kept trying right to the last minute and as Mendips exhaustion kicked in they scored 2 late goals but we kept them out to achieve 3 hard earned points which keep us at the top of the table.
Paul Woolaway
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