Men's 1st XI Vs Barton 1s

The Men’s 1st team faced Barton at home in the first home league match of 2023. The 16 man squad that faced saw 3 changes from their last league outing, with Jack Mallet unavailable, with Dave Tracey, Vince Richardson and Callum Nightingale all returned to the team. 

The game got off to a lively start, with a bad tackle by Vince Richardson being punished with a penalty stroke to the away side, which was dispatched past keeper Neil Davies. After a period of neither team dominating the ball (and Tom Gough losing his Apple Watch) Telford found themselves with a short corner after the opposition defender hit the ball straight off the back even with plenty of space around him. Bartons No11 saw himself dismissed after strong appeals to the umpire, being upgraded from a green to a yellow card after continuing his complaints, much to the home fans enjoyment. Tom Mallet put away his 7th goal of the campaign, with the Number 9 scoring a powerful drag flick. 

With the score level at 1-1, the hosts conceded a penalty corner, with Sunny Sahota also picking up a green card after the umpires discussed what they had seen. Barton scored from the corner, after an error from Cal S let the Barton attack pounce, with the ball only just going over Davies’ line, with Phil Bailey also picking up a green card in the aftermath. 

After the start of the second half, Telford kept the press on, a strong defence refusing to let Barton score another. After more cards were given out by the umpires, the home crowd thought their team had equalised, after a Callum Stacey drag flick rippled the net of the goal behind, with many of the home crowd believing the ball had gone in the correct goal. The hosts did get their equaliser towards the end of the game, after a well worked attack beat the resistant defence of Barton, leaving Noah Higginson to tap home his 6th goal of the season. 

A great result for the firsts, against a team sat four places higher then them in the league. Next week, the 1’s travel away to Boots 1’s in Nottingham, who Telford beat 5-2 in their season opener.

Report credit - Ben Stevens