Better Late Than Never

The theme above is apt for both the writing of this report as well as the match detailed herein. As we all know, ours is a game of two halves and it takes all our treasured 70 to either win or lose a game, but on this occasion, the Mighty 4s only found their groove in the latter 35 in this week’s loss to league leaders Edgbaston.

We knew it would be a tough game going in (since promotion, which games haven’t been?) and Edge set straight out to prove us right. They attacked well and broke quickly, moving the ball accurately and using the space we gave them well. It came as no surprise when, after an impressive display of passing and movement, a sequence of passes found its way into the Sils circle and was deftly flicked past our defence and into the goal. Edge 1 – Sils 0. Such was the trend set for the first half as Sils found themselves overrun and, at times, overwhelmed by a relentless Edge attack. The opposition were clearly out for blood. Despite some solid defending by the entire back line, including debutant Mackenzie Hall, by half time, Sils were down by seven. One could say we had a lot to do.

In the absence of the usual Skipper, the Hon. Lord Higgins, Rushy took the liberty of stumbling through a half-time team talk, endeavouring to save most of his dribbling for on the pitch.

The above being said, something must have gotten through as the 4s that re-joined the fray bore only a passing resemblance to the team who had left a couple of minutes previous. We communicated well, used our space and supported one another. We passed accurately and found ourselves in the Edge D on several occasions. One such occasion resulted in Rushy winning a short corner. John Harrison’s superb injection was returned to him for him to fire across the goal to 2nd newcomer, Pema “Pele” Hawken, who made certain it found the backboard.

Sils continued to play well, linking passes, moving the ball around and holding possession and it wasn’t long before another sequence of passes down our left wing found Pema again who, in turn, found the Edge goal. We were winning short corners and playing more commercially in the D and despite Edge using their trademark passing, were able to find the back of our net once more, we won the 2nd half 3-1. Our new trigger man, Pema managed to bag all of them and has earned himself M.O.M

Post-game, the mood was positive and even the Edgbaston skipper had to concede that we made life difficult for them in the second half and, despite the final 8-3 final score, we are looking forward to facing off against close rivals Warwick next week.

M.O.M: Pema "Pele" Hawken