Telford’s Men’s First team hosted top-of-the-league Stourport at St George, a team who had not lost all season. The only change to the team was Jack Mallet coming in for Liam Hennessy.
Telford created a chance early on, but the ball was cleared out wide. Captain Tom Gough was determined to show Stourport his determination for a hard game, picking up an early green card for putting too much of his body into the tackle. Telford did have three successive short corners, however nothing was to come of them for the home team, with Stourport making a quick break as Telford were left debating the decision given by the umpire in Stourport’s way. The free hit was taken quickly, with the small smashed into the top corner of Neil Davies’ goal.
The score quickly became 2-0, with Stourport scoring off a controversial short corner in the eyes of Telford, the drag flick deflected in by the injector, whilst Philip Bailey was dismissed for his protests. Telford did halve the deficit, with Ollie Brannan intercepting a sloppy pass from Stourport’s defender. Brannan found Sam Pratt, who squared the ball across to Tom Mallet, who tapped into an empty goal for his 12th goal of the season. Stourport brought back their two goal advantage, with what looked like a great save by Vince Richardson, was deflected up and tapped in for 3-1.
The score remained 3-1 until half time, before Stourport carried on their goal-scoring. It became 4-1 through a reverse flick past Neil after Telford failed to secure the ball in their own 'D'. 5-1 followed after a strong turn in midfield from Stourport. A driving run allowed Stourport to strike home from the top of the 'D' . 6-1 was the score after another short corner, with the drag flick going in off Davies’ foot.
Gough brought the final score to 6-2, after controlling the ball in the air, before hitting the ball on the half volley, with the Stourport keeper making a mess of it, giving the skipper his first goal since November 2021, meaning he lives up to his fantasy hockey team name of having ‘More Cards than Goals’.
Next week sees the first team travel away to Rugby & EW, having drew 5-5 with them at home earlier in the season.
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