10 Nov 2007 - Bude A v Bodmin A - 7 - 3

Bude A 7 – Bodmin A 3

It has been a while since I submitted a match report so apologies to those whose efforts have not been recorded for posterity.

The trouble is that scoring a hatful of goals may be great for team morale, but it is very difficult to remember who contributed what to each goal.

Since the last report we have lost 0 – 4 at home to Marjons, who were just too quick for the stand-in keeper, and lost 2 – 3 away to Truro who were very lucky to get any points in the game.

We have had two home games with the same scoreline; 7 – 3 against Penzance A and 7 – 3 today against Bodmin A.

Both games showed what we can do when we play as a team, and make the ball do the work rather than running with it. Today against Bodmin we face a physical opposition, who wanted the game as much as we did at the start. Despite having a midfield consisting of 3 of the 4 players that have played there this season we looked a bit lost at times. However, strong passing and equal physical pressure eventually proved that we are a strong unit to play against. Sam Latter showed that he has lost none of his ability to run with the ball on his stick, despite playing colts rugby this season, and Ross Pethick showed that you don’t have to go to the blood clinic to make your weekly donation. Having been hit in the head whilst going through the D, he continued his full-on commitment and was seen diving full length for a ball that was obviously going off the pitch. Calum made some excellent saves in the first half, ably supported by Andy Latter who cleared a certain goal almost from inside the goal itself.

We approached half time with the scoreline 5 –1 in our favour, and then we had the short corner barrage that the 1^st team had against Bodmin a week ago. This time we were more successful than the 1^st team, and kept the ball out of the net. Matt Kane made a superb interception with his feet off the first short corner, from a ball that was hit in from the 25 yard line (sorry about the Imperial measurements, I am too old for metric). For some reason the Bodmin captain wanted to remonstrate with the umpire about whether or not this was deliberate. The point was lost on me as no-one else had touched the ball, and they were not going to score as there were still 4 of us on the line and still no Bodmin player anywhere near the ball. However, they got another short and we kept the score at 5 – 1.

The Bodmin half time team talk obviously pointed out some errors in the Bude defence, as we were tested more in the opening minutes. The attacks were repelled, and we had opportunities to increase the lead from passes started from the midfield. Unfortunately these were not converted, and Bodmin continued to attack. Some sterling work in defence followed, with Calum continuing his excellent work from the first half. The 4 goal advantage started to slip away as the defence eventually gave away short corners, Bodmin scoring from 2 of these to make the score 5 – 3. At this point we got back into the swing of things, and proceeded to score two more of our own to restore the 4 goal differential. The second of these was probably the best, as Adi unselfishly passed the ball across the D for Sam to slot in his second of the game. Scorers in the match were Dave, Ross (again), Steve, Adi (2) and Sam (2).

Another excellent result, which just shows that we could have won some of our other league games if we had got the new shirts a month earlier. Tomorrow we are off to Redruth to play Camborne School of Mines, in a re-arranged game from last week. Despite the travelling and age of some of us, hopefully we will come back with another win, especially if the students drink as much as I did on Wednesday evening.