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Whitchurch v Cheltenham Match Report - 11th October 2014

Whitchurch Men’s 1st Team fell to a 3-1 defeat to Cheltenham as they played over half the match with 10 men. Buoyed by the previous week’s win against Barford Tigers, and playing at home for the second week in a row, Whitchurch had high hopes of getting another three points against a youthful Cheltenham.

Despite a strong first five minutes, any expectations of an easy victory were short-lived as, on 7 minutes, Will Teagle was harshly deemed to have deliberately kicked the ball and was subsequently shown a yellow card. No goal was scored from the resulting short corner and the game continued to be played at a high tempo with neither side able to assert dominance.

Returning to the field, with the score at 0-0, Teagle was again in trouble as the umpire once again saw an innocuous foot as a deliberate foul. Giving the offence inside the Whitchurch D, the umpire awarded Cheltenham a penalty stroke and handed Teagle his second yellow card, resulting in a red card and suspension from the remainder of the match. Under pressure, the Cheltenham forward converted the stroke to take his side into half time with a 1-0 lead.

Strong words and a tactical reshuffle saw Whitchurch come out into the second half aiming to hold firm at the back and score on the counter attack. Unfortunately, with only 10 men on the field, Whitchurch could not challenge all over the pitch and a series of attacks saw Cheltenham score their second goal of the game past Iwan Williams in the Whitchurch goal.

Refusing to lay down, Whitchurch – led by Dougie Wallace – showed great character and work effort to win a short corner, which was upgraded to a penalty stroke as the ball struck a Cheltenham defender on the line. It was another day in paradise for recently engaged Mozam Thomas as he showed the same composure as the previous week and calmly flicked the ball home into the top right hand corner of the net. Against all odds, Whitchurch were just one goal behind with 15 minutes on the clock.

The renewed vigour could not last forever, though, and the inferiority of numbers told in the final ten minutes as Cheltenham capitalised on a tired Whitchurch defence and slotted their third and final goal of the contest.

At the final whistle, the scored stood 3-1 to the travelling side but great credit goes to Whitchurch for their unwavering work rate and belief in the face of being a man down for 40 minutes of the game.

Next week, Whitchurch travel to Indian Gymkhana.