Hertford 6s 0 - 1 Southgate Adelaide 3s

Hertford Men’s 6 fought heroically but were ultimately not able to take any points for their encounter with Southgate Adelaide 3.
For the first 20 minutes it was all Adelaide pressure with Hertford camped firmly in their defensive 23mete area. But Hertford’s defence, borrowing half of that from the men’s 7 team this week, were resolute repelling most attacks whilst Adelaide saw their attempts on goal go wide when they did manage to break through.
The game changed midway through the first half, oddly after Adelaide found the way to open the scoring from a well placed cross which found a striker ready to slot home at the far post. Three minutes later Adelaide looked odds on to score from a well taken penalty corner only for the blistering strike to be stopped by Tony Dean’s stick.
Hertford regrouped. Young goalkeeper Zack Thompson stepped up to take a commanding dominance in his D. Luke Godwin worked tirelessly between defence and attack creating Hertford’s best chances in combination with Rian Weston, guesting on a weekend home from Uni. Mention should also be made of Kieran Perkins in his first senior game, making some important tackles in midfield with some calm and sound distribution of the ball.
Hertford were now on a par with what, man for man, was probably a stronger team and reached the break just a goal down.
The second half was a much more even affair. The Keogh father and son combination closed Adelaide down in midfield whilst George Kimberly at left wing began to replicate Godwin’s on the right in getting behind Adelaide’s defence with a combination of speed a stick skill. Halfway through the half Kimberly narrowly failed to bring down an arial ball in the D which would have left him an open goal in what by now Adelaide had realised was a very 50:50 affair.

With 10 minutes to go Graham Locker came on for a brief cameo in attack and by carefully positioning himself just outside the Adelaide D immediately brought the defence back Hertford much more space in the middle of the park which Hertford’s midfield immediately dominated creating a number of chances. Just after the umpire signaled 2 minutes of time left Adelaide finally conceded a penalty corner but the well struck shot went narrowly wide of the post just out of Sean Keogh’s reach for what would have been an equalising goal.
Southgate Adelaide’s win brings them level on points at the top of the table with Hertford 6, Stortford and Cheshunt with Hertford remaining in top spot by a single goals difference. Next week Hertford 6 travel to 5th place Luton whilst Stortford visit Adelaide so it looks like being a key weekend in Division 8SW.