4 Goals from Edger

Old Silhillians 5th XI 5 (2) - (2) 3 Yardley 2nd XI

Goalscorers: D.Bridges, M.Edger (4)

On a bitter Saturday evening, Sils welcomed Yardley 2nds to The Silhillians with a strong looking 14 players, mixing youth and experience. Thanks to the parents who endured the cold temperatures to provide support.

The 5th XI is a make-shift side that is assembled to provide juniors with the opportunity to experience full adult hockey, plus giving hockey to extra players that may not get the full opportunity otherwise. Based on the performance of the side today, the club is in a good place to enter a 5th team officially into the league next year.

As with any side that does not play regularly together, the squad did not gel immediately, and Yardley had the better of the opening exchanges - Ben Rice in goal being called upon to make a number of saves. It was no surprise that Yardley took the lead after 10 minutes, as their initial dominance deserved the first goal.

However, as Sils began to find their feet, both Matt Hill down the left, and Jake Johnstone down the right were showing real quality in possession, and the home team started to come back into it. With their first real attack, the equalised, though rather luckily - Maxim Edger hit a cross, only for it to be turned into the goal by a Yardley defender.

It was not long before Yardley retook the lead, a quick shot on the turn catching Rice in goal slightly unaware. This only spurred Sils on to score a brilliant team goal though - Steve Dellow at the back firing the ball hard at Maxim Edger, his first time lay off allowed Aaron Lawana to run onto the ball and hit a pin-point 30 yard pass picking out Dan Bridges in the D, who turned and fired his reverse stick shot home.

At half-time, with the scores level, the Sils knew they just had to work harder for each other on the ball, as Yardley were tiring.

The second half saw Maxim Edger score a hat-trick of reverse stick strikes, all three of them being created by good play down the right by Sam Teal and Aaron Lawana, creating space down the wing, before picking out Edger around the top of the D, and on each occasion, he turned and rifled the ball home past the beleaguered visiting keeper.

Yardley scored a deserved third goal as a consolation with minutes to spare, but Sils ended up finishing 5-3 winners.

Man of the Match was a tricky one - Ben Rice had kept the Yardley attacks out for the first 15 minutes, Matt Hill and Aaron Lawana both made very critical contributions down the flanks, and the young defensive duo of Mackenzie Hill and Charlie Russell made some very timely tackles when required.

However, the win was built off the back of two performances, Steve Dellow, making his debut for the club, dominating the middle of the pitch at the back in the second half, and Maxim Edger scoring 4 goals - so they both win joint Man of the Match.