British Airways 1's 3 - 3 Sonning Mens 1's

Sonning drew a tricky opening fixture for this years’ league campaign with an away tie at last year’s third place finisher’s British Airways. BA had a formidable home record last season, and Sonning knew that they would need to be near their best to take something from this encounter.

In what is becoming a hallmark of this side, Sonning utterly dominated the opening quarter of the contest, with BA consistently camped within their own half. Time and again BA struggled to deal with the intensity and pressure Sonning were bringing to bear, and ultimately this lead to the opening goal with a deft first time finish by Ian Gallagher from a long ball by Sam ‘JT’ Terry (0-1).

This was no less than Sonning deserved; however BA levelled soon after with their first chance of the game. A quickly taken free-hit within their own half broke the Sonning press, enabling BA to execute a classic counter-attack down the middle, creating a shooting opportunity the left side of the Sonning goal which was duly dispatched low into the opposing right corner (1-1).

The goal resulted in a shaky next ten minutes for Sonning, as they attempted to recover some composure following this setback. Fortunately, this didn’t result in any further goals and Sonning gradually re-instated their authority on the game. Sonning were again able to make the pressure tell, as just before the half-time whistle, new signing Rob Crackles found himself with time and space in the British Airways D, which he utilised to full effect with a composed finish to the keepers near post to give Sonning the lead once more (1-2).

Despite going into the half-time break behind, BA opened up the second half in dominant fashion, time and again breaking the Sonning press and only some inspired scramble defence preserved Sonning’s advantage. This was made all the more acute when Sonning repaid the pressure by securing their third goal. A swift counter-attack and a timely BA keeper/defender mix up presented the ball to Jimmy Manser in a scoring position, and he made no mistake to extend Sonning’s lead (1-3).

BA responded to this set-back by almost immediately reducing the deficit. Some excellent stick skills on Sonning’s right touchline resulted in an inch-perfect pass across the face of the Sonning goal, eluding defenders and keeper alike before being deflected in at the back post (2-3).

The final 20 minutes of the game was an open and entertaining affair, with neither team able to contain the other with scoring chances created regularly at both ends. Unfortunately for Sonning, BA was able to convert one of their chances to tie up the scores with a last-ditch left-side deflection from a short corner Soeluding both keeper and postman (3-3).

Ultimately this was the final scoring act of an entertaining game, and both sides can rightly feel proud with the quality of hockey on show. The season continues next week when Sonning take on Slough at the Doombar arena.

MOM: Alasdair Allan

DOD: Matt Poulton