Men's Otters vs Salisbury 4

Otters 0 - 3 Salisbury 4 (H)

A pretty decent result overall considering that the Otters put out an even more inexperienced line-up than that the week before against Andover. We had players in positions that they'd never played in before including Len Hampton at sweeper and Alfie Latimore at centre-mid, who both had their work cut out as top of the table Salisbury came looking to continue their ten match winning run.

Our defence was superb with Mikey Redding, Freddie Pinson and Dan Foster working overtime to contain Salisbury's attack and Lucio Fernandes making excellent saves whenever they got off a shot. Also Nathan Henderson covered for Dan at left back for the last part of first half and didn't put a foot wrong.

We were only a goal down at the end of the first 35 minutes and perhaps could have got level in the early stages of the second half as we fired balls into Salisbury's D that we just couldn't quite get that important touch on to turn into the goal. 

Even at 2-0 down we gave Salisbury a few worries although we only managed to win one penalty corner during the match, Seb Walmsley got off a reasonable strike but Salisbury's defence dealt with it capably. Meanwhile our defenders continued to soak up the pressure, Freddie making one very memorable clearance off the line as his man turned and shot with Lucio beaten.

Salisbury's third goal sealed the match for them but this didn't come until well into the fourth quarter and the whole team deserves credit for how much of the match we stayed in contention. Len was especially good, wearing the captain's armband and keeping control of matters. Our youngest players, Nathan H and Sebi Pizzo, gave very mature performances and we had a debutant in George Butt, just a week after his thirteenth birthday, who began adult hockey with an impressively capable and composed performance. 

So there were many positives to take from a match that could have been disheartening, especially considering we lost 4-0 at Salisbury's Skew Bridge ground earlier in the season with a much more experienced group of players.