Saturday Update – 14th October 2023
It was back to league action for our mixed teams this weekend after a break last weekend for the Cup/Plate and Bowl.
A mixed bag of results for our teams with 3 of our teams coming up against our fiercest rivals Bacchas.
Vikings A came up against Bacchas A, and Vikings were unlucky to not take the win playing the better hockey and coming back to lead 2-1 at half time. Some great saves from Harry woods who was MOTM meant we kept Bacchas at bay for long periods of time and should have extended the lead after going 3-1 up.
A couple of cards and playing for 15 minutes in the second half with only ten players on the pitch led to them getting back into the game.
Vikings played some good hockey and were unlucky to come away with only a point, with one goal apiece for Darryl Jago, Kim Carney and Tom Burrows.
It was an unfortunate scoreline for the B team, which greatly flattered the Bacchas side.
Vikings had the majority of the play and just weren’t clinical enough with it, with Kyle Gunnion grabbing the only goal for Vikings, whilst Bacchas capitalised on their breaks.
Some truly fantastic hockey playing from everyone in the team, need to keep it up!
Our C team were came up against bottom of the table Castletown Cammags and enjoyed a really fun game of hockey, with both teams in good spirits resulting in some good laughs on the pitch.
Vikings making good use of their short corners for 2 goals and keeping the effort going the whole game!
Best performance so far of the season for the C team with a MOTM performance from Josh Kaighin grabbing two goals and Charlie Bell grabbing the other.
The D team continued their good form against Valkyrs D who put in a great defensive performance and gave Vikings one of their more sterner tests of the season, despite the Peel team currently occupying second bottom in the table.
An early short corner dispatched via a flick from Adam Braidwood opened the scoring, only for Valkyrs to peg Vikings back via a penalty flick awarded after a rush of blood to the head from a vikings defender, who inexplicably reached up to handle the ball in the D.
It was almost constant Vikings pressure with Valkyrs camping 2/3 of their team in the D and trying to hit on the break where they could. Finally mid way through the second half Ben Dougal slotted a reverse hit into the far corner of the goal to hand Vikings 2 more points and keep them atop Division 2.
Our E team were up against Castletown Cushags. They started out strong keeping the scoreline even for most of the first half, before Castletown hit 2 goals home. Vikings retaliated seconds from the end of the first half with youngest player Henry Stewart on his seniors debut, setting up a goal for Faye Williams, who slotted it through their keeper’s legs.
They were less lucky in the second half with Castletown scoring 4 more, Vikings unfortunate not to have had another goal or two, meaning the final score ended 6–1.
Our young but depleted U15 team took on the Bacchas U15 A team and whilst they are showing good progress, the experience of the Bacchas team showed as they put away 6 goals without reply in the first half and added another 5 in the second half. Young Theo Hampson standing in as goalkeeper due to player availability and our U15 only having 8 players was always going to be a difficult match against a Bacchas team currently third in the table.
Keep working hard Vikings !
