[visiongallery set=72157629459143921]
Varsity loomed, pride at stake, and still a lot to play for, even though by early afternoon, York almost had the competition sealed. That’s one way to look at it anyway,
York meanwhile were treating it more as a friendly and practice against top class opposition. The Men’s 1sts had a Yorkshire League fixture, so the duty fell to the 2nd team to fill the breach against a Hull 1sts side who compete in the same division as York’s 1st team. A tough ask. Nevertheless the 2nds battled hard against talented opposition, putting up a spirited performance despite succumbing to a 7-1 defeat, a scoreline which didn’t do their performance justice. For Hull it was a whitewash in the hockey, after their 2nds had recorded a narrow 3-2 victory over York 3rd XI.
Hull started brightly, and were first to add their name to the score sheet with a messy goal only minutes into the encounter. A hit from just inside the D was stopped by Alex Alonso only for his effort to rebound, trickling through the legs of goalkeeper Dong-oh Shin. The goal was decidedly scrappy and lucky for the visitors. York had the opportunities to bring the play to the Hull defence. One particular drive from Fred Isaac drew admiration from the burgeoning crowd.
The next goal, however, showed Hull’s skill absent in their first. After driving down the left wing, the Hull forward punted the ball across the goal face. A cheeky slap from the player waiting at the far post was all that was needed to bring the score to 2-0. At times York were slow to track back and pick up these breaking players, often being caught on the hop in midfield.
Despite these two early errors, the York defence heralded some brilliant play. Patrick Forrester and James Hope were stalwarts at the back, the Hull attacks were often stopped at the stick of one of these two freshers. One particularly noteworthy tackle came from Forrester, who, despite having being just warned; “don’t dive” proceeded to make a tackle whilst falling at the attacker’s feet- knocking him off course and into the crowd.
Hull’s positioning proved to be a great strength in the game, with York having to step up their marking to cope with the pressure. The visitors displaying great calmness and composure on the ball, continued to carve out dangerous openings.
York played the game to Hull, bringing it back up the pitch and into the D. With some beautiful one touch passing up the pitch Adam Douglas frustratingly hit the post with his shot but luckily Fred Isaac was in the perfect position to coolly hit in the rebound, bringing the score back to 2-1.
The game was characterised by incredibly quick play, with both teams playing passing the ball rapidly play whizzed from one end to the other. Hull scored their third goal of the match with their third shot in succession, the first two saved by Shin only for the third to flick over his stick. It had been a very solid first half performance by York, yet nevertheless they were behind at the interval.
Trailing 3-1 at the start of the second half, scoring the next goal was crucial if York were to get anything out of the game. The second half continued in similar fashion to the first, with play being fairly balanced, with the visitors slightly on top. Neither team could carve out any clear openings, as the game was played mainly in the middle of the park. A careless error, however, of not being five metres away from the player taking a free hit, resulted in the awarding of a short corner for Hull, about 12 minutes into the half, which was severely punished. The pinpoint injection was stopped, and then precisely and powerfully drag-flicked into the top right corner of York’s net, with Shin standing little chance of preventing the goal.
By now the contest seemed more or less over, but York continued to play some positive, fluid hockey, which ended in the Hull keeper being called upon to deny Adam Douglas. Hull however still looked dangerous going forward as they pushed for a fifth goal which would kill off any York hopes. One shot whistled narrowly wide, whilst a last ditch tackle was required by James Hope to stop a clear Hull opening. The fifth goal however came with about 15 minutes remaining, as a penetrating pass into the York area, was skilfully converted into a goal with a clever lob over the sprawling Shin. Shin was soon called into action once more to deny Hull a sixth, and the resulting rebound was fired just wide, with Hull completely in the ascendancy.
Once more York tried to rally and continued to search for a second goal which their performance merited. Despite their efforts and some good hockey, clear openings were few and far between, and in general it was a quiet second half for the Hull keeper. The Hull sixth followed when the Hull striker was put through on a one-on-one with Shin. Despite launching himself at the ball to save the initial attempt, the rebound broke to an onrushing attacker who flicked into the back of the net, despite the desperate attempts of the York defenders. York weren’t helped at this time, by injuries to Talbot and Lewis, which reduced them to a bare eleven, and no subs as fatigue began to set in. Hull continued to pile on the pressure as they looked to add to the daunting scoreline, with consecutive short corners and successive shots threatening York. A potential opening broke down when a York 2 on 1 was snuffed out, and Hull put the icing on the cake with a seventh breakaway goal to round off the scoring.
It finished 7-1, a score which was unfair on the home side, but the visitors were worthy winners. As skipper Alex Alonso commented, “We played pretty well in large; it was about the performance not the result. It was a big improvement on previous day’s defeat to Huddersfield, and we gave a good account of ourselves against a team which play three divisions higher than us”.
Vision MOM: James Hope