Two minutes of madness sinks Cannock

 Cannock 2 – 4 Wimbledon

After a promising start to the England Hockey National Premier League Cannock have been frustrated by their lack of concentration at vital moments over the last two games. Last week saw them travel to Essex to take on Holcombe, a team in the mould of Chelsea and Manchester City, who have a rich benefactor and have been able to buy in most of the Great Britain squad. Despite breaching an early goal Cannock competed admirably with the superstars only to be undone by a series of short corners.

This week Cannock welcomed last year’s Champions, Wimbledon, to Chase Park. For 30 minutes the sides battled with Cannock squandering several chances. Both sides were guilty of giving the ball away cheaply but on balance Cannock appeared the stronger, and despite poor finishing could have been a couple of goals to the good. Cannock were reduced to 10 men as Chris Beck was sent to the bench with a yellow, only to see a Wimbledon player go unpunished for a similar offence with afters!! Then disaster struck! On 30 minutes Johnny Kinder dispossessed Ashlin Freddy on Cannock’s base line and as the rest of the defence were wrong footed he found the back of the net. This unsettled the home side and within the next two minutes Wimbledon and Great Britain centre forward Ali Brogdon took advantage of a lack of concentration to score another two goals. From a point of ascendancy Cannock went in at half time with a three goals deficit.

Cannock head coach Mark Moss must have applied the hairdryer treatment during the interval because the home side pushed Wimbledon back from the start, Harry Jawanda, Robbie Gleeson and Arjun Chana all coming close. Eventually Marc Edwards found the back of the net, only for the trailing umpire to radio in his decision to rule out the goal. Undaunted Cannock kept up the pressure which resulted in a short corner which Pete Jackson drove over the diving keeper to give Cannock some semblance of hope. Eventually a driving run from deep within his own half saw Gleeson break into the Wimbledon D only to be upended as he shot for goal. A penalty was awarded and expertly dispatched by Jackson for his second. With the clock running down and Cannock desperate to at least level the score they were caught on the counter attack after committing men forward to allow Wimbledon’s Caspar Phijffer in for their fourth goal.

Despite two disappointing results coach Moss remains optimistic that they can get back to winning ways. Next week they travel back to London to take on the current league leaders Surbiton.

As the Midlands Leagues got underway this week Cannock had notable successes with their 2nd Team beating Belper 10-1 including 5 goals from Louie Morris and a hat trick from Chris Darnley. The 4ths beat Edgbaston 5-0 and the 7ths defeated Stafford 4s 4-1. There were draws for the 3rds and 8ths, with the 5ths being the only defeated Cannock side going down 2-1 away to Rugby & East Warwick 4s.