Sonning 1st XI 4 - 2 British Airways 1st XI

The game began with a slightly different XI to previous weeks, with skipper Paul Brown and team stalwarts David Painter & Dan Anderson all out with injuries. Adam Pusey made his return to the squad, even gifted a surprise starting berth, while Neil Pursell returned to join Tom Sampson in the centre of defence.

In a totally frank assessment, Sonning were pretty woeful for about the first 20 minutes. Their opponents started fast and were quick into the ascendency, with an early goal easily put past the once again ineffective Alasdair Allan at a penalty corner, whilst Sonning struggled to retain possession once over the halfway line, against an aggressive press. 0-1.

Sonning, to their credit did manage to work their way into the game and built some phases around their opponents circle. They managed to win a couple of short corners, but these were either charged down by BA’s quick No.1 runner, or not executed well. To compound matters, BA then scored a second, probably against the run of play to really put the home side under the cosh. 0-2 it remained at the break, despite a fair bit of huff and puff from the home side.

Once again, coach Ali Raza kept the team calm at the break, and his instructions were well heeded as the second half commenced. Adam Pusey turned into a one man wrecking ball up-front on the left, winning possession high up the pitch repeatedly and disrupting the BA back line as they attempted to play out from the back. This allowed Sonning to win a couple of short corners in quick succession, and as the 4th quarter of the game approached, Sonning had got themselves back into it. The first corner was converted by Jonny Partenheimer, and the second by Tom Sampson. 2-2.

Sonning had the momentum now, and it was their opponents on the back foot. This was interrupted slightly when Partenheimer saw yellow for an off the ball incident, to make it 10 vs. 11, but it was short lived, when his victim turned aggressor just a couple of minutes later, receiving a yellow of his own for some interesting stick-skills. While all this was going on, Sonning got their 3rd goal to take them into the lead for the first time, with another penalty corner, won by Jack Kelly and converted by Tom Sampson for his 2nd of the match. 3-2.

British Airways did continue to provide some attacking threat, with their very skilful forwards carving out a couple of chances, but the back line of Terry, Pursell, Sampson and Sloper held firm, even after Terry took a green card for the team, with his steroid-induced rage momentarily getting the better of him… Mark Dobbie, Ollie Waddington and Chris Hinton were instrumental as always in making sure there were constant outlets, and Sonning continued to play through the lines.

Near the full time whistle, they got their rewards, with Matt Poulton’s thunderbolt nearly breaking the backboard as he tucked another penalty corner away neatly to take the result beyond doubt. BA had a corner of their own, after the full time whistle, but finishing off a solid day’s work, this was charged down by Sampson to keep the score at 4-2.

A job well done to come from behind to secure the win, with 9 penalty corners won, and 4 converted, but Sonning will hope to start brighter next weekend, as they travel to Bracknell for what is always a tricky fixture.

Goalscorers: Jonny Partenheimer, Matt Poulton, Tom Sampson (2)
Yellow Card: Jonny Partenheimer
Green Card: Sam Terry
MOTM: Neil Pursell