Mens 4th XI vs Bournemouth 4 (A)

Men's 4's watched the weather all week to see if we would be frozen off. The club cancelled all home matches in Friday night, but "down south" the pitch was fine and we were on.

The 4's trickled across the New Forest dodging traffic jams on the A31 to Chapel gate. After a warm up in fresh conditions we started conscious that this was a 6 pointer near the top of the table.

After a fairly comfortable early spell of possesion Trojans started to pressurise the oppo's D and after some nice attacking build up we got our first short corner. Up stepped Ryan for a chance to bow out in style, but he dragged it just over the bar with the goalie rooted to the spot!

After some more strong build up play Jaffa received the ball on the edge of the D and reversed it to Watto to finished well when under pressure.

Going into the halftime team talk, we identified that we had more time on ball than we were expecting and we could build play more gradually. A nice change of scenario rather than being harangued like usual!

The second half continued with good Trojans play. More short corners (unfortunately for Ryan while he was off) saw Jaffa striking firm shots, but too straight and their keeper saved them.

On the next huddle for a short, we discussed that the rushers were coming out very straight. The ball was slipped left to Watto who had time to steady and smash it in to go 2 up.

Bournemouth looked deflated and tried to press to get one back, but Phil was not to be passed and made some great saves late on.

Ryan got extra time on the pitch to try to bow out with a score, but there was no Disney ending here!

Trojans were delighted at the final whistle to have won what was the only match in our division to be played that day and rise up the table.

Special mentions to Gareth, Matt Wall and Harrison for their efforts, passion and running, and for Dave Hendo for sacrificing his knee in his efforts.

A great team photo - Ryan you will.be sorely missed. See you back for the dinner or friendlies in the summer. All the best from all of us.