Hard fought 60 minutes followed by a poor final 10 for the 2s
After returning to positive points in the league, the 2s had a difficult challenge to face against Liverpool, who had beaten them 8-1 in the away fixture earlier in the season. However, the boys were ‘well up for this’ and there were hopes that playing on a pitch that was not a desert might help even the odds.
The game started off well with Lancaster working through Liverpool’s press with Crash, Luke and Nelson receiving the ball from defence to make moves into Liverpool’s half. Lancaster’s press itself worked for the most part as well with interceptions being made by Crash or Anders, whoever was acting as the free man at the time, interrupting Liverpool’s attack. Good moves up front from Ben and Asse resulted in a short or two being won but despite Lancaster’s efforts no goals were scored, one chance blocked by a quality save from Liverpool’s goalkeeper to deny Jamie, Unlucky.
As the second half went on, Liverpool returned to throwing aerials which put extra pressure on Lancaster’s backline. There were, as feared, a series of great missed aerials in the game, which shall be summarised here: Stotty, forgetting he is now a real boy, intercepted an aerial with his nose and had to go off, Paddy was completely caught out of position and tried to make up for it by screaming ‘Lancaster’ as it went over in an attempt to fool people into thinking he would get any sort of touch on it, and Sam probably missed a few… Liverpool also started tightening the press with Lancaster struggling to get it out of their quarter. The deadlock was broken as Stotty sent a ball down the midfield that was intercepted, resulting in a 2v1 for Liverpool, which they scored off.
Liverpool’s press continued towork for them in as the first half went on. Only some defensive work, especially from Jordan kept the score the same. There was some pressure on Liverpool, and yet another good chance, in the form of a first touch shot from Jamie went just wide of the goal. In the last five minutes, some pushing in Lancaster’s D (haha) resulted in a short for Liverpool. Fortunately, Liverpool’s big lad at top D for the short could not get the ball to move through Anders’ knee into the back off the net. Unfortunately, this meant that Anders, an essential defender, got hit in the knee and was out for the remainder of the match.
The second half called for a tactical switch from Nick Davey as he tried to look for movement down the sides to outmanoeuvre Liverpool’s press down the centre, once again showing that he is to hockey what Francis ‘xAgniKai’ Gurman is to low Elo League of Legends. However, just like sometimes Francis has some off games (mainly when playing with Matthew ‘Mattee131’ Tomlinson), so too did Nick’s tactical shift seem to cause some issues as Lancaster gave away a quick short corner. Liverpool’s drag flicker had at this point learned not to flick the ball at knee level but had not learned how to find the back of the net. I did not realise their players were capable of learning. Unfortunately, after further pressure a Liverpool player had run along baseline and scored after Tonsils incorrectly judged their shot for a pass across D.
After this, as the game neared its end, Lancaster very clearly began to get desperate, so despite some good moves down the side, too much dribbling allowed Liverpool to remain in control of the game. The score line was kept at 2-0 thanks to some quality saves from Oscar and very strong tackling (and tactical kicking of the ball) from Jordan. James managed to swipe a ball off the line and then Jordan did some bits down the right-hand side to embarrass a Liverpool player, which the home crowd loved. Out of nowhere, a Liverpool player two-footed Berto, expecting a signing from Jürgen Klopp, but instead earning a 10-minute sin bin in the process instead. Did he actually slip? Most likely, but in the eyes of Genga the lad had to go. Yellow card for dangerous play. Berto was unharmed (had you worried there for a second didn’t I). Seeing Liverpool go down to 10 men must have done something to Oskar ‘James ‘Tonsils’ Porter’ Linblad as he proceeded to let three goals through his legs to confirm Liverpool’s win. Jamie, clearly angry that Liverpool were flinging all the aerials slung one from the push back after the fourth goal with a shout of “box them in”. It was a nice aerial and got some height, but it went to no one because it was from the bloody push back. Moves like that would be more useful In LUMHCRFC if it existed.
In the words of Nelson, a hard fought 60 minutes gave way to a disappointing last 10 as the 2s once again got done hard by Liverpool and their big centre back who can fling aerials and twat balls at people from top D like no one else in the league can. The mighty 2s have strengthened their resolve will have their revenge next season.
Man of the Match: Jordan for some big tackles and noice runs.
Dick of the Day: Berto for the self-vote. Oops
Shoutout to Chips’ girlfriend for providing homemade biscuits after the game. Legend.
Match report by Berto and Anders
After returning to positive points in the league, the 2s had a difficult challenge to face against Liverpool, who had beaten them 8-1 in the away fixture earlier in the season. However, the boys were ‘well up for this’ and there were hopes that playing on a pitch that was not a desert might help even the odds.
The game started off well with Lancaster working through Liverpool’s press with Crash, Luke and Nelson receiving the ball from defence to make moves into Liverpool’s half. Lancaster’s press itself worked for the most part as well with interceptions being made by Crash or Anders, whoever was acting as the free man at the time, interrupting Liverpool’s attack. Good moves up front from Ben and Asse resulted in a short or two being won but despite Lancaster’s efforts no goals were scored, one chance blocked by a quality save from Liverpool’s goalkeeper to deny Jamie, Unlucky.
As the second half went on, Liverpool returned to throwing aerials which put extra pressure on Lancaster’s backline. There were, as feared, a series of great missed aerials in the game, which shall be summarised here: Stotty, forgetting he is now a real boy, intercepted an aerial with his nose and had to go off, Paddy was completely caught out of position and tried to make up for it by screaming ‘Lancaster’ as it went over in an attempt to fool people into thinking he would get any sort of touch on it, and Sam probably missed a few… Liverpool also started tightening the press with Lancaster struggling to get it out of their quarter. The deadlock was broken as Stotty sent a ball down the midfield that was intercepted, resulting in a 2v1 for Liverpool, which they scored off.
Liverpool’s press continued towork for them in as the first half went on. Only some defensive work, especially from Jordan kept the score the same. There was some pressure on Liverpool, and yet another good chance, in the form of a first touch shot from Jamie went just wide of the goal. In the last five minutes, some pushing in Lancaster’s D (haha) resulted in a short for Liverpool. Fortunately, Liverpool’s big lad at top D for the short could not get the ball to move through Anders’ knee into the back off the net. Unfortunately, this meant that Anders, an essential defender, got hit in the knee and was out for the remainder of the match.
The second half called for a tactical switch from Nick Davey as he tried to look for movement down the sides to outmanoeuvre Liverpool’s press down the centre, once again showing that he is to hockey what Francis ‘xAgniKai’ Gurman is to low Elo League of Legends. However, just like sometimes Francis has some off games (mainly when playing with Matthew ‘Mattee131’ Tomlinson), so too did Nick’s tactical shift seem to cause some issues as Lancaster gave away a quick short corner. Liverpool’s drag flicker had at this point learned not to flick the ball at knee level but had not learned how to find the back of the net. I did not realise their players were capable of learning. Unfortunately, after further pressure a Liverpool player had run along baseline and scored after Tonsils incorrectly judged their shot for a pass across D.
After this, as the game neared its end, Lancaster very clearly began to get desperate, so despite some good moves down the side, too much dribbling allowed Liverpool to remain in control of the game. The score line was kept at 2-0 thanks to some quality saves from Oscar and very strong tackling (and tactical kicking of the ball) from Jordan. James managed to swipe a ball off the line and then Jordan did some bits down the right-hand side to embarrass a Liverpool player, which the home crowd loved. Out of nowhere, a Liverpool player two-footed Berto, expecting a signing from Jürgen Klopp, but instead earning a 10-minute sin bin in the process instead. Did he actually slip? Most likely, but in the eyes of Genga the lad had to go. Yellow card for dangerous play. Berto was unharmed (had you worried there for a second didn’t I). Seeing Liverpool go down to 10 men must have done something to Oskar ‘James ‘Tonsils’ Porter’ Linblad as he proceeded to let three goals through his legs to confirm Liverpool’s win. Jamie, clearly angry that Liverpool were flinging all the aerials slung one from the push back after the fourth goal with a shout of “box them in”. It was a nice aerial and got some height, but it went to no one because it was from the bloody push back. Moves like that would be more useful In LUMHCRFC if it existed.
In the words of Nelson, a hard fought 60 minutes gave way to a disappointing last 10 as the 2s once again got done hard by Liverpool and their big centre back who can fling aerials and twat balls at people from top D like no one else in the league can. The mighty 2s have strengthened their resolve will have their revenge next season.
Man of the Match: Jordan for some big tackles and noice runs.
Dick of the Day: Berto for the self-vote. Oops
Shoutout to Chips’ girlfriend for providing homemade biscuits after the game. Legend.
Match report by Berto and Anders