18/10/14: Mendip maintained their unbeaten run this week with a hugely impressive performance away to South Glos.
Right from the start they showed their intent, playing with a high tempo and might have scored in the opening minute when the ball dropped favourably to Paul Floyd, but his well struck shot whistled narrowly wide.
That set the tone for the first half with Mendip working extremely hard to close down their opponents and, denied time and space South Glos found it difficult to find their passes and clear their lines.
Having wrestled the early initiative, Mendip settled into their rhythm and moved the ball with pace and accuracy to exploit the space down both flanks and put pressure on the already faltering defence, forcing more and more errors.
That pressure finally got its reward and Mendip opened the scoring from a well worked short corner routine as Paul was on hand to tap in at the back post.
The forward pairing of John Lippiatt and Steve Smith are forging an irrepressible partnership with each match they play and they used their strength and guile to torment the South Glos rear guard and were a constant threat.
With Mendip very much in the ascendency, they increased their lead from another short corner when Josh Sutton received a square pass on the right side of the D and was afforded enough time to ‘flick’ into the goal.
Mendip continued their strangle hold on the match with Paul being pivotal in controlling the midfield and most of Mendip’s build up play flowed through him.
South Glos battled gamely and inevitably had opportunities. However Mendip’s work rate never dwindled and the occasional foray was dealt with comfortably by the rock solid back four and they took their two goal advantage into half-time.
The start of the 2nd half was very different as South Glos significantly raised their tempo and immediately put Mendip on the back foot. They had much the better of the opening 10 minutes as Mendip became a little ragged and were extremely unlucky not to score as two well worked attacks resulted in fierce shots going agonisingly close.
Having ridden their luck and soaked up the intense pressure, Mendip regained their composure to launch a counter attack and earn a short corner from which Steve fired in an unstoppable ‘drag flick’ to go 3-0 up against the run of play.
The game then opened up and flowed end-to-end with both teams going for all-out attack. The home side grew in confidence and played some neat hockey in and around the Mendip 22m area and when the ball broke into the D through a crowd of players Andy Flint was slow to react and a South Glos forward prodded home to throw them a lifeline.
Despite Josh, Paul and Will Lawton working tirelessly in midfield the run of play seemed to turn in the home side’s favour and Mendip started to give away cheap fouls.
South Glos were gifted an opportunity from their one and only short corner of the match as the hapless Flint illegally stopped the ball on the line and to his discredit was sent to the ‘sin bin’ for dissent. Leigh Taylor was given absolutely no chance with the penalty stroke and the score line was narrowed to 3-2.
Ironically Mendip had their best spell of the half whilst reduced down to 10 men and when Liam Young raced onto a through ball down the right wing he had enough composure to pick out Steve who converted with clinical precision.
With the numerical equilibrium restored and with their inspirational captain back on the field of play Mendip were able to see out the remainder of the match and claim a valuable 3 points in what was a thoroughly exhilarating contest.
The Team was: Leigh Taylor, Andy Flint, Giles Denning, Rich Penn, James Lovell, Paul Floyd, Josh Sutton, Will Lawton, Liam Young, Steve Smith and John Lippiatt.
Andy Flint
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