England Hockey Men’s Masters Cup Round 1

9.10.11

 

Charnwood Mountsorrel 5 (3)  v  Ashby 0 (0)

 

 

Charnwood Mountsorrel won this first round match in the Masters Cup competition at Mountsorrel.

 

Charnwood settled into a pleasing style of hockey from the start, retaining possession well and using the full width of the pitch to their advantage.  They took an early lead when Mark Weaver was set up by skipper Kevin Stanton-King and his clean strike beat the visiting ‘keeper into the bottom right corner.  The score was doubled by debutant Nigel Rixon, who finished coolly under the advancing ‘keeper, following a good pass from Weaver.  It was the goalkeeper, however, who kept Ashby in the match, making a number of fine saves to deny the home side as the pressure mounted.  Weaver added to his tally before half-time, however, hitting a crisp shot on the run after a length-of-the-field move had cut through the Ashby defence.

 

The hard-working midfield re-established their grip on the match at the start of the second period and Steve Fairbrother took a pass from his strike partner Weaver to dispatch the ball beyond the exposed ‘keeper to make it 4-0.  Ashby responded well and enjoyed their best period of the match, forcing a series of penalty corners, but they were unable to breach the stout home defence, well-marshalled by sweeper Tony Kirk.  A quick, skilful break by Charnwood’s midfield led to Fairbrother’s goal-bound strike being denied by a defender’s foot and it was Fairbrother himself who converted from the spot to complete the scoring.

 

This was a good performance by Charnwood, who now look forward to the second round draw.

 

 

Squad:

Mick Barlow (GK), Dave Allen, Steve Fairbrother, Tony Kirk, Ravi Matharu, Tony McKee, Ross Merrick,

Nigel Rixon, Guy Rollins, Kevin Stanton-King (c), Mark Taylor, Chris Waterfield, Mark Weaver.