Men's Otters vs New Forest 2

After three matches without a win we needed something to boost our morale and with New Forest just below us in the table this was a very welcome result indeed.

We had to make a few changes around the team to ensure we could compete in all departments, so Harvey Gault moved from centre midfield to centre forward, Henry Sheath moved to centre midfield, Craig Harris was at sweeper, Gonzo slotted in at right midfield and Daryl Barnes helped us out in goal allowing Lucio Fernandes to show us his outfield skills at left wing.

It was Lucio who was the first to make a difference, after 18 minutes he diverted a ball fired into the D up towards the top corner of the opposition goal, the keeper pawed it away but on hitting the carpet it span back through his legs and Jack Sweed fired it into the back of the net to give us the all-important lead and also celebrate his 14th birthday. We often forget how young Jack is, he's been with us a year now and has started to be in the right place at the right time with the consistency required to score a decent number of goals per season, his future looks very bright. 

The game stayed fairly tight through to half time, Daryl had a few saves to make and we squandered a short corner opportunity, but the team was full of belief as we enjoyed the break with a lead for the first time in a month.

We had to wait ten minutes of the second half before we had the cushion of a second goal, Craig smashed the ball into the D and Lucio used the pace to neatly find the corner of the goal from 10 yards out with the Forest keeper floundering, definitely the goal of the match.

Then we had to battle as our opponents came back hard to get themselves back into the match, Harvey picked up a green card for doing his job and breaking down play in the opposition's midfield, his presence on the pitch was immense throughout the game. New Forest grabbed a goal back shortly before the hour mark but within five minutes we'd got our cushion back as Craig flicked a penalty corner high into the Forest net after being teed up by Lucio.

Three minutes later came the coup de grace as Craig flicked another short corner, after Mikey Redding's pinpoint injection, high into the net with this one taking a deflection on the way through to take the lead to 4-1. New Forest knew they were beaten as there was little excitement in the last ten minutes, but we got a look at Freddie Pinson at right mid as Gonzo relaxed for the last part of the match with a job well done. After the final whistle Staz Czajka again took the applause for yet another fine performance lacking any drama at left midfield and the team can now look forward to a week's break before we're into the final stretch of the season.

Phil