England Hockey Men’s Masters Plate Round 1

23.1.11

Charnwood Mountsorrel 6 (3)  v  Ashby 0 (0)

Charnwood Mountsorrel progressed to the next round of the Masters Plate with a comprehensive victory over local club Ashby in this delayed Round 1 fixture.

A depleted Charnwood squad, missing several regulars, started brightly at Mountsorrel and benefited from an early mistake from the visitors, when Paddy Oakman intercepted a mis-hit clearance and set-up Steve Fairbrother to open the scoring.  Fairbrother was on hand again to double the lead shortly afterwards, rounding off a good move down the left involving Tony Kirk and skipper Kevin Stanton-King.

The home side were able to play their crisp passing game for much of the half, creating a number of further chances that were not converted.  Ashby had a period of pressure towards the end of the half, but Charnwood’s hard-working midfield and composed defence held firm.

Just before the break, Charnwood added to their lead when a goal-bound shot was stopped by an Ashby foot on the line – Guy Rollins beat the ‘keeper with the resulting penalty stroke to score his first goal for the club and make the score 3-0 at half time.

The visitors started the second period well, with more sustained pressure – Charnwood’s new ‘keeper Mick Kelleher was in good form and repelled all attacks.  The home midfield of Rollins, Dave Allen and Chris Waterfield soon re-established control and Charnwood scored a picture-book goal following a flowing move from one end of the pitch to the other which featured most of the team – Oakman was on hand for a simple finish.

With the home defence now largely untroubled, it was one-way traffic for the rest of the half, with Dave Allen making it 5-0 with his first goal for the club when he converted an Oakman cross.  The final goal gave Fairbrother a well-deserved hat-trick – he was a menace throughout and comfortably beat the last defender and ‘keeper to complete the scoring.

Charnwood will now play Worcester in the next round.

Squad:

Mick Kelleher (GK), Dave Allen, Ed Allen, Nigel Calow, Paul Carter, Steve Fairbrother, Tony Kirk, Tony McKee,

Paddy Oakman, Guy Rollins, Kevin Stanton-King (c), Mark Taylor, Chris Waterfield.