Men's 2nd XI 2 - 2 Reading
Higgins London League Premier Division


East Grinstead travelled away to the delightful Reading Leisure Centre to face a strong Reading 2nd XI on a cold and blustery day.

The team started off slowly in the warm-up due to the previous match over running and the Reading side looked to have a more structured and intense routine. This translated onto the pitch as Reading dominated the early exchanges in the game, but some resilient defence lead by Seye kept the lively forwards at bay with some fine saves from the formidable frame of Paul Coltham in goal for EG.

As the game started to settle the EG players began to find their feet on a poor surface that was cause for a very slow game with few silky skills being shown. Just as Grinstead began to create some chances, Reading managed to score an incisive breakaway goal after some sloppy finishing from the EG forwards gifted them them the ball. Reading managed to sneak another sloppy goal as the forward's miss-hit reverse stick shot managed to loop into the empty net. This acted as a catalyst for the EG team as they started to attack with intent and created some good chances, but failed to capitalise on these and went into the break 2-0 down.

After some inspired words from the few senior players in the squad, Grinstead started to play their style of hockey and soon found plenty of gaps appearing in the Reading defence. EG controlled the start of the half and got an early breakthrough via a low drag-flick from Dwain Quanchan after some good work down the right by Mike Shelton and Andrew Medcalf. This buoyed the EG team and they got another goal soon after as Christian Wimshurst dazzled the Reading keeper with his cleverly disguised shot placed in the bottom corner. The match was fairly even after the goal with both teams having chances to win the match; notably for EG an attempt cleared off the line from Shelton and a good drag flick attempt from Henry Howe well saved by the Reading goalie. The only black mark on the second half was the yellow card given to Charlie Pine.

EG showed some good spirit and unity to come back from 2-0 down away at Reading and deserved a point at the end. There were many positives to take from the game, the main one being Gogsy managing to control his temper and stay on the pitch for the whole match. EG will look forward to a home game against Hampstead and Westminster next week on their preferred surface
 

Scorers: Christian Wimshurst (F), Dwain Quanchan (PC)
 

MOTM: Duncan Scott

Team: Coltham, Pine, Budden, Akande ©, Gogarty, Scott, Quanchan, Arthur, Medcalfe, Wimshurst, Shelton, Howe.