Mendip 4 – 1 Clifton Robinsons B (31/10/2020)
Goals Scored: Chris Hampshire (2), Caleb Rowe, Steve Smith. MoM: Caleb Rowe
Written by: Adam Forsyth
Mendip Men’s 1s welcomed Clifton Robinsons B on a bright and breezy afternoon at Fortress Chew 
. With no matches before or after, each team had plenty of time to warm up and prepare for battle on the shiny and slick pitch. The 1s welcomed back in goal Leigh Taylor (who was excellent on the day as usual!) and set about the task of taking on what beckoned to be a good opponent who fell from the league above last season.
Mendip ball at the first whistle and it stayed that way for large parts of the first half (and the game). The team in yellow zipping the ball around the pitch extremely well under a high line of pressure from the blue-wearing Robbies. Most notably, Robbies were pressing us well into getting the ball to Left Back Nick Pang, who was well up to the task of spraying some fantastic passes around the pitch and the occasional wobble to eliminate players like they were statues, pleasing the onlooking home support.
Throughout the half Mendip enjoyed the greater possession and looked the more likely to score, often threatening with half chances but nothing more. Then for a 5 minute spell, the boys in yellow lost their way through ill discipline and some poor tackling that led to a green card for the skipper. Under even more pressure, it spurred us on and left Pang to pick out a 60 yard pass to an on rushing Caleb Rowe, who had a lot to do at speed but superbly rounded the Robbies keeper to his left and dove on his reverse to sweep into an empty goal. 1-0 Mendip! However, the ill discipline continued and the yellows saw more green cards that eventually told with a simple finish from an unmarked Robbies player in the D. The yellows regained their composure and made it to half time scores level 1-1.
Some strong words were offered by our illustrious Captain Maxton Spalton, demanding that we played the hockey we know we could without letting our umpiring opinions get in the way. He also pointed out it could be our last 35 minutes of hockey together for some time and this seemed to bring us all back to it. At the start of the second half, for about 10 minutes, we were superb and almost unplayable – it was probably some of the best hockey I’ve ever seen us play in yellow. Moving the ball all over the pitch, through the air and on the ground, Robbies couldn’t stay with us.
The next goal came quickly, with an aerial pass down the right from yours truly landing to Caleb, who played infield with one touch into the path of the charging Chris Hampshire, who slotted underneath the keeper. The next goal came very much from the same type of play, this time the aerial pass from the excellent Jon Holland, with a perfect aerial onto Caleb who ran along the baseline and pulled back to Hampo who duly obliged. 3-1 and we’re flying! More dominance eventually led to the 4th with a well worked passage of play that gave Steve Smith a chance to finish with a simple sweep on his reverse.
Mendip continued to dominate and it could have been more if not for a superb save from the Robbies GK denying #BazNation Harry Ellison from a top corner drag flick. As the game wore on Robbies pushed for a goal and for about 3 mins Mendip almost fell foul of yet more poor discipline at the back with another green card but we held firm and ground out the final few minutes to a deserved 4-1 win. A superb performance in patches with the gloss missing due to some poor discipline but nonetheless we’ve started the new season perfectly and can only hope we get to keep it rolling next week away to Devizes.
MOM deservedly went to Caleb, who left everything on the pitch and showed really high quality in taking his first goal, not to mention the 2 superb assists for Hampo.
DOD went to Richard Penn who had a superb game but showed a little too much passion following a tussle around the D!
A big thank you to Karl Birk and Andy Baird for umpiring! 
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