Pershore Vets 4 (1) - (3) 6 Old Silhillians Vets

Goalscorers: Andre Tchakhotine x 3; Mike Drury; Mark Moss; Mark Barton

Sils Vets travelled to the great, if not somewhat distant, pitch at Pershore High School, looking forward to another run around, and so it proved to be. This fixture had a whole menagerie of things that make Vets midweek hockey what it is:

The faint smell of manure in the air
Guest players
Borrowed kit
An umpire falling over (and getting in the way) - there were fine though (before you worry)
4 different umpires in total
The "2 second rule" being imposed
A football coming onto the pitch threatening to prevent a goal
The Chairman losing his cool
1 half and 2 quarters
A "banned" player not being banned after all
An alarm going off in the nearby school for around 60% of the game
& some excellent conversation in the pub afterwards (which, in true Vets style, we were asked to leave as it was past closing!)

...and amongst all that 10 goals, of which at least 7 were pretty good!

The Sils, having at one point on Monday thought they may have been struggling to get a side to travel to Pershore and with potentially only 10 players, started the game with the luxury of 4 (yes FOUR) subs, through some savvy late player recruitment by the Chairman, Tom Scott (the young Scott) helping out in his usual manner, and the Captain's impending 30 day ban being moved to cover league fixtures.

With Chad running late, John Scott stuck in the car park, John Rice getting told he had to go the long way round to get to the pitch and Mark Barton on his usual post work dash across, the starting XI was an unfamiliar looking side, playing an exciting 3-2-3-2 formation. The side welcomed back Mike Drury, and added in Mark Moss and Dave Bayliss to the centre of the pitch alongside Tom Scott, making it an all non-Saturday Sils midfield. Thankfully all of these players are pretty handy (more of that to come later) and hence early possession was dominated by the men in white, and a few half chances came - but with so many new faces in the line-up, the side struggled a little to put together the final touches to earn the scoreline rewards that their pressure (and attractive play) probably deserved.

In contrast, Pershore were far more direct when they got the ball, and whilst the Sils generally forced their play to attack high and wide, on occasion, the home team were able to attack far more centrally and this led to the opening goal, slightly against the run of play. A strong run through the midfield led to the first home PC being awarded, and whilst the first direct shot was saved, a second corner ensued, and Pershore cleverly switched their routine to employ the fast, disguised slider from their best player, and he fired home the opening goal at Steve Tabb's near post (sadly not the only time he was to be beaten by this slider, nor by a ball going in the near post!)

However, this did stir the Sils side into more attacking intent, and with Jamie Glynn now pulling strings as the middle of the attacking 3 midfielders, the ball was soon being moved around smartly, and provided more opportunities. The first goal was scored by Andre Tchakhotine with the ball being neatly turned home from close range at the far post, and the second was a flowing move, with Mark Barton doing all the leg work, initially winning the ball inside the Sils defensive half before offloading to John Scott (now on and playing in his traditional right back position), who played the ball to Andre, and his run and cross was met by the marauding Barton as he made it to the far post just in time to turn the ball home with great glee.

The third, shortly before half time, was another flowing move involving John Rice and Glynn down the right before debutant Mark Moss picked up the ball on the left hand side of the D, and flicked a cross-shot towards the far post which ended up nestling in the net just above the backboard.

With the last action of the half being a Glynn flick from a corner damaging one of the home players, one of the home umpires asked for the plethora of Sils bodies to help out with umpiring so he could play - a massive thanks to Dave Baylis and Dave Burton for taking up the whistle and umpiring 17 mins each.

Not much to discuss at half time other than the Captain trying to work out who was due to be playing with Baylis offering to umpire, and John Scott refusing to come off (well, in reality, he just said he would rather stay on and come off towards the end as opposed to going on and off numerous times).

The second half continued in the same vein as the first, with Sils playing the better hockey, but failing to perhaps score all the goals they should. They did score an early 4th goal, this time with Mike Drury taking his opportunity to score after good build up play down the left but Pershore continued to create chances with their direct balls, and aggressive fast paced running by their tall forward. Through one of his loping runs down the left, a PC was won, and this was how Sils then scored their 5th! The umpire decided to enforce the "2 second rule" on pushing out the PC (even though it is not actually a rule, it is only guidance) and Simon Spain was quick to play the ball forward from the resulting defensive hit awarded. With Pershore struggling to get back in time, a fast counter resulted in Tchakhotine getting on the end of another well constructed attack to score his second.

From here, the Sils switched off a little to the threat of Pershore's direct passing through the middle, and the home team created a number of further chances. A few PCs were saved (with the injector having learned his lesson) including one shot turned onto the bar, and some near scares. However, it took a Sils defensive mistake to provide Pershore with their second - again, an attack down the Pershore left exposed Sils and as the forward pushed the ball across the D, Spain instinctively stuck out a stick and deflected the ball past Tabb in goal at his near post. 5-2, and seemingly no major panic.....but this game was going to get much closer! Another PC to the home team was won, and this time the PC execution was poor leading to the ball being recovered by the home team from the 23m area, before being passed to the guy with the fast slider, who unleashed from the right side of the D, and whilst Tabb got a hand to it (and probably should have done better with it) the ball ended up in the top corner and now the deficit was down to 2.

All this time, Sils were still creating chances, but not managing to score them, and as they pushed forward again, they were undone by another direct counter-attack; the Pershore forward collecting the ball on the half-way line and outrunning the visiting defence to smash home into the bottom corner. It was at this point the Chairman lost his rag / gave a rallying call, and this did the job.....thankfully, within minutes the one goal gap had once again become 2, with Tchakhotine rounding off his hat-trick with another deflection past the keeper. This was how the score remained to leave the Sils with a thoroughly entertaining 6-4 win.

The travelling Copt Heath outfit (plus Mossy) had just enough time to call into a pub on the route home, to cast votes and enjoy the post-match teas (supplied by Mike Drury - thank you!) of some bags of crisps, and a few pints! Voting was completed and Mark Moss took home the obligated MoM award as a debutant (and Baylis was not in the pub), but this was not just the standard affair of new player gets MoM - one voter actually commented that Mark Moss was "a good player" (you would hope as someone who has played National League, coached International squads and was England Over 35s Vice-Captain he might be ok!)

Dre didn't win the DoD award for not buying a jug (and has promised to get one in at a future game) - the "honour" for this game (or the events leading up to it) went to the Captain Thurman for his rage moment at the weekend (and also his horrible miss from close range in this match). More importantly, and noticeably, both Baylis and Moss have offered to help out again whenever we are short as they enjoyed the evening so much :)

All in all, a splendid Vets evening, maintaining the Jon Mitchell legacy - for those who aren't aware of who Jon was, ask any of the OG Vets at the dinner!