Honours even in the Sun

Second half comeback leads to share of the spoils

Sils entertained Stratford on a beautiful October afternoon.

The Lions team are providing some fantastic opportunities to several new youngsters as they progress into 11-a-side hockey, and today there were further debuts for Mackenzie Hill and Izzy Gardner. This meant that they struggled to gel in the first half, and the Stratford team edged the first period, going into the break 2-0 up, with two goals being scored in the last 8 minutes of the half, both in very similar fashion, with the visitor's star forward, Sam Cossey (hockey scholar at Solihull School), working his magic down the left hand side, to provide easy tap-ins at the far post.

However, a tactical reshuffle at half-time, and the Sils were very much the stronger team for the second period. Gabby Walker was causing mayhem down the Sils right, repeatedly beating her players, and linking up with Thomas Smith to expose the Stratford left-back. From one of Walker's runs down the right, the ball bounced around in the D to finally be latched onto by Daniel Bridges who slotted confidently home.

10 minutes later and the game was all square - Maxim Edger causing problems in the Stratford half, before Smith as able to cross the ball in, and Walker was the first to react to the loose ball, and flick the ball past the visiting goalkeeper.

With Cossey now being marshalled excellently by man of the match (and another of this year's new "finds") Charlie Russell, Sils were able to flood forwards and Izzy Gardner was feeding the forward line well. Matthew Hulbert and Edger both had shots saved, but in the end 2-2 was probably a fair result.

A cracking game, against a great opposition. Just what the Lions is all about - would be nice to play next week with the full squad of players we were expecting to turn up as our youngsters had no chance for a break as we had no subs!