Cannock Under 18’s Plate Cup – Long Road to Lee Valley 1st May, 2017

After a long hard season the Cannock under 18’s found themselves at Lee Valley for their toughest challenge of the season to date, the Plate Cup Finals.

After the starting whistle blew, Canterbury came out strong and Cannock’s defence had to have their wits about them with the lads soon settling into the game proving an equal match for the opposition. The game ebbed and flowed for a while but the ball soon ended up in the Canterbury D and Cannock forced the goalkeeper to make his first save, followed by a second shot which went wide of the goal. At this point the Cannock lads were on good form and it seemed like Canterbury had certainly met their match.

There was soon a great interception by a Cannock player, driving the ball into the Canterbury D forcing the first short corner by Chris Gardner that was unfortunately saved off a Canterbury stick.

After more play and a defensive slip up by Cannock, a short corner was awarded to Canterbury which was cleared by a Cannock foot leading to a second short that was saved by the Cannock keeper, only for a short to be called once more by the Umpire for a third attempt that was nicely cleared by the Cannock defence.

Following more pressing from Canterbury, Cannock’sgoalkeeper Connor Beardmore made a lunging save pushing the ball back into play, a player broke free and headed up towards the Cannock keeper once more for a one on one challenge which Connor responded to by running towards the player forcing him to go wide.

After the last 15 minutes of constant pressing with some great clearances by the Captain, George Nellist, Duncan Gladwin and a fearless Isaac Spooner, Cannock were grateful for the half time whistle to blow to regroup and take on some more fluids. The score being 0-0 and still anyone’s game.

The start of the second half felt like Canterbury came out as a different team, they had clearly had a change of tactics and were in total control of the first five minutes, much to the dismay of the Cannock team and Cannock spectators. Within about two minutes Canterbury had scored their first goal which gave them a further boost to their play. This was quickly followed up by a short to Canterbury and a yellow card to Cannock, reducing us to ten men. The short was nicely cleared by a diving save from the Cannock keeper but this didn’t stop Canterbury breaking free forcing a long ball into the D and fired straight into the goal, making it 2-0.

Torrential rain then prevailed rendering all the players soaking wet through, but nevertheless both teams kept their heads up and played on. Being used to rain on The Chase, our lads picked up a pace bringing the ball through the centre of the field, with nice play from Jordan Joiner, Hamish McKittrick, Guy Sheldon and Jamie Greenwood giving great support to Callum Mackenzie up front.

After some good play by Cannock, Canterbury managed to break free once more and charged down in the Cannock D forcing the Cannock keeper to make 3 consecutive saves. The Cannock lads then turned the pressure back onto Canterbury taking play back into the Canterbury goal resulting in four consecutive short corners that they were unfortunately unable to convert, with the closest being a reverse stick from Callum McKenzie that unfortunately hit the post.

Cannock pushed hard to the end and didn’t give up at all but were unable to bring the game back with the final score at the closing whistle being 2-0 to Canterbury.

This was the final match of the season for the lads, and for many who have played hockey together at Cannock for a number of years this was also the final junior outing. Callum Stacey, rising to the challenge of being Coach for the season and his team can be truly proud of what they achieved today and hold their heads up high - playing in the finals at Lee Valley is something great to look back on in years to come.

Connor Beardmore

Callum Mackenzie

Hamish McKittrick

Jordon Joiner

George Nellist

Duncan Gladwin

Guy Sheldon

Conrad Willars

Chris Gardner

Ollie Southall

Jamie Greenwood

Joe Norwood

Ben Hampton

Issac Spooner

Jack Rolfe

Luke Stacey

 

Well done lads! #COYN​