First win for the new captain and team

Playing Market Drayton could have easily been a daunting prospect after the last trip to Keele University ended in Sils' heaviest defeat last season. When Sils came to play here in March, they were dismantled 8-2 by the home team which ended their hopes of promotion. The starting line up this weekend only included 2 players who played in that fixture. Mo Hadian who had also missed that game returned to captain the side which saw league debuts for 4 young players. The 'deadline day' signings of the Aston Uni duo Millian Chauhan and Sam Howe filled in the gap in the central defence following injuries to Andrew Scott and the unavailable Jon Corp. They were partnered by the returning Bertie Cornforth at right back and Matt Deakin at left back. With an average age of 18, this was possibly the youngest defensive back four Sils Men's Hockey Club have ever fielded. Goalkeeper Brin Jones, returned in goal looking to keep this season's first clean sheet. The midfield four consisted of Joe O'Malley playing in the defensive role in the absence of Mark Dovey, with John Rice on the right, Danny Nicoll on the left and Mo Hadian at the top of the diamond. Max Levenger replaced the unavailable Adam Kent and another summer signing Tom Merriman made his league debut alongside him upfront. Coming off the bench to help out in midfield was another young debutant, Joe Houlcroft, who at 15, was the team's youngest player.

Having learnt from last week's slow start, Sils were focused from the push back and took control of the game with some patient passing and possession. The back four were looking solid and confident transferring the ball around effectively with Joe O'Malley in front linking up the play with the attacking players. Sils came close to opening the scoring with short corner efforts from Max and John Rice narrowly missing the target. The Sils' full backs and wingers were persistently attacking the flanks and putting the pressure on Market Drayton, however the final product was missing in the first half as there were no clear cut chances thanks to good defending by the opposition. Joe Houlcroft came on to dazzle the opposition with some brilliant stick work beating 2 players at a time with his dribbles. He was at the end of a half chance from the top right side of the D which forced a save from the keeper. Market Drayton then managed to create a period of pressure which saw the best chance of the half. Goalkeeper Brin Jones was called into action and had to make a good initial save but it was Sam Howe who cleared the rebound ball off the line to keep the scores level at half time.

The second half saw more intent from both teams as several chances were created. Another good attack and build up between John Rice and Bertie Cornforth saw a dangerous cross into the D but Mo Hadian was unable to get enough stick on the ball from the deflection as the keeper made a comfortable save. With Sils having more of the possession, Market Drayton were now relying on counter attacks. Twice they managed to create a one on one situation in the D with Sils' last defender Millan Chauhan, however it was the debutant 'Millsy' who came out on top taking the ball clean from the strikers with 2 brilliant tackles. Market Drayton did manage to win a couple of short corners later but once again it was the Sils' goalkeeper and defence who handled the situation calmly and prevented the opposition taking the lead. At the other end, continuous waves of attacks from the likes of Danny Nicoll and Tom Merriman form the left awarded Sils with a short corner opportunity of their own. A neat push out from Joe O'Malley was perfectly stopped by Tom Merriman allowing Mo Hadian to go for route 1: the direct strike. And it was that man again who gave Sils the lead with a sweetly struck shot into the bottom right corner, 1-0 Sils.

Market Drayton who were probably expecting an easy ride and another handful of goals were left disappointed thanks to hard work of the Sils midfield and defence, getting behind the ball when not in possession and making tackles to stop any further clear cut chances. Sils were then able to hit them on the counter as Max Levenger found the gap in middle of the 25 with a perfectly weighed ball for Mo Hadian. As the Sils captain found his way into the D and pushed the ball past the goalkeeper, he was denied by a last gasp interception on the line from the Market Drayton defender. Joe Houlcroft's trickery and skills continued to cause problems on the left for Market Drayton. They had to resort to some cynical foul play to stop the Sils players. Eventually the umpires decided to hand out a yellow card for a deliberate foul outside the area on Danny Nicoll, but unfortunately due to frustration and retaliation the Sils' man was also shown a yellow card after pushing the defender away. Sils came close again with 2 more short corners but it remained 1-0 to the end, giving them a delightful revenge victory and more importantly 3 points as results of their first win of the season.

The players were delighted for the clean sheet which at times was thanks to brilliant tackling from Millan Chauhan. He was awarded the man of the match award alongside Joe Houlcroft who got an equal share of the votes for his skills and hard work in midfield. Every Sils player gave it their 110% in this game and the captain was said to be proud of his team's performance and win. 2 games, 4 points, and up to 4th in the table, good start to the season continues.