Newmarket’s second game of the season
was against Horncastle, a team which they had not played in 6 years
and that game ended goalless. The home team were without several
regular players, including their goalie, who had transferred to
another team just days before this fixture. With this in mind,
Newmarket planned to keep it simple and aim to use the wings on the
counter attack. Greg Cummins lead the defence, with Adrian Atkinson
and Anthony Nowell working hard on his sides.
The away team attacked from the
whistle, but found it hard to break the home team’s defensive unit.
Harry Bell and Adam Gallop made great use of the wings, but it was
the midfield partnership of Josh Dawson and Magnus Magnusson that
troubled Horncastle’s back four, with both Ian Starling and Mark
Pears playing deep in the opposition's half.
The
first counter attack came when Starling took the ball to the by line
and crossed it to a composed Magnusson, finding the back of the net.
The second goal came briefly afterwards, again from the vision of
Starling, but this time Pears being the goal scorer. This frustrated
the visitors and they eventually gave away a short corner to the
yellow and blues. The ball was pushed out poorly to Gallop, who
slipped it short to Magnusson, and he made no mistake in hitting it
under the Horncastle keeper to net his second of the game. This
boosted Newmarket's confidence
and with it came some very good hockey,
great passing and good movement.
The fourth goal came minutes from time,
with Starling again being the playmaker, passing the ball to Dawson.
The young midfielder ran into the D, he anticipated what the keeper
would do next and flicked the ball over the body of the keeper as he
threw himself down in an attempt to stop the speedy little player.
The second half started with the home
team looking to further their lead, but what came at them was a
Horncastle team still looking to get points from this game. However,
the Newmarket keeper, Steve Freed, kept them out with some great
saves, Ben Gottfredsen, Jordan Newmes and John Boyle provided a rest
for some of the home team, and held well in their positions.
Newmarket became tired as a whole and
were unlucky to concede two late goals in the last 5 or 10 minutes.
Magnus Magnusson picked up man of the match for an outstanding
performance, and scoring two goals, double the amount he scored last
season.
Next week Newmarket are away to Cambridge Nomads IV and Newmarket II
are home to St Neots V.
Newmarket are always looking for new players for both their men’s
teams and also their ladies team. Training is at Newmarket Sports
Centre on Tuesdays starting at 7:30pm until 9:00pm on the all
weather pitch, feel free to turn up if you're interested.
