Whitley Bay & Tynemouth Hockey Club

WBTHC 1 v Urmston 1

WBTHC 1s hosted Urmston 1s with both teams flying high in North Division one after unbeaten starts. After a lacklustre start from both teams, WBTHC broke the deadlock with a neat move down the right, finished at the back post by Andy Titmus, their top scorer. The evergreen Paddy Meredith soon made it two, with a well taken goal from close range. Despite the two goal lead the home team seemed to lack their usual momentum and passing fluency as the Urmston midfield looked to break down the game at every opportunity, in what was beginning to be quite a physical game in midfield. Soon before the half time break, the ball was given away cheaply in midfield and Urmston took their chance at the first time of asking, with a scrappy looping reverse stick finish to the dismay of the WBTHC defence.

After a stern half time team talk WBTHC pushed forward, attempting to correct the mistakes from the first half. The bad day at the office for WBTHC would however continue as poor defending allowed the Urmston forward to stroll into the D and finish with a powerful low shot, levelling the game. In the closing period the home side made one last push for the 3 points as the Urmston team found themselves defending wave after wave of WBTHC pressure. Despite the continued attacks and in excess of 10 penalty corners, it wasn’t going to be WBTHC's day, as the ball refused, sometimes miraculously to finish over the Urmston goal line. WBTHC will be looking to get back to winning ways next week in a local derby against Newcastle University.