Saturday Update – 6th April 2024

Huge Congratulations to both our Mens A and Ladies A teams in securing the Premier League titles – a fantastic Vikings achievement !

Here are the season statistics for the Ladies and Mens A teams :

Match Roundup

The Ladies A have already won the league title having played their final match against Valkyrs on the 27th March.

The Ladies B were given a 5-0 walkover this weekend due to Bacchas Ladies C unable to field a team.

Ladies C ground out a tough 1-0 win against Castletown E in extremely windy conditions at King William’s.
Vikings playing with the wind in their backs first half and pegging Castletown back for long periods of the half, with Castletown managing to hit on the break but being well controlled by the Vikings defence.
A shuffle of player positions part way through the first half began to add more bite to Vikings attacks and Jo Roney managed to put away a smart shot past the keeper to put Vikings 1-0 up at half time.
Playing into the wind for the second half made it tough going for Vikings, but the young players worked the ball well and kept possession for long periods of time attempting to engineer more chances at goal but having to work hard to chase back when Castletown hit on the break with a smart stop from young Poppy Gerrard in goal and also a vital stop from Rachel Ward keeping the scoreline at 1-0 an securing 2 points for the Ladies C.

A sunny yet windy day brought the Men’s A down to King William’s for an all or nothing match against Castletown A who have been known to put up a good fight against the almighty blacks.
The first goal was upon us in what felt like no time through Scott Mason who converted a well worked short corner via Will Bridson to Scott who magically made the ball available to his reverse stick where he slotted home into the bottom left corner.
Vikings held possession very securely and built the pressure into Castletown half, with great play down the left half through Tom, Scott and Andy Harding, Josh Dougal found himself with the ball on the end of his stick on the baseline where he managed to somehow wriggle past a number of red shirts before scoring what could be described as a world class goal.

A stern team talk was given at half time to stress the need to keep cool and carry on with the wind now behind, the Men’s A had the upper hand going into the second half.
Vikings built play carefully from the back through a number of transfers around the back between Ben, Steve, Will and Ryan. The Castletown defence seemed to open up, and a pass from Scott through to Macklin was rewarded with Macklin running into the D through 2 red shirts and being able to convert a reverse stick push/flick past the Castletown Goalkeeper.

Before long we found ourselves yet again in the Castletown D with an out of position John Verral, he slotted the ball through to Macklin who couldn’t make it. But fortunately the ball bounced off the post behind the goalkeeper and landed in front of a perfectly positioned Scott Mason, who slotted home for the fourth.

The attempted onslaught carried on and a short corner attempt from Will Bridson found not one, but two red players on the line denying him a slice of glory. Ste Crowe, looking to follow in the footsteps of absent big brother, Neil Crowe, stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way only to be denied by the inside of the left post.
Many more chances came for Vikings through strong play down the left hand side with good link up through Ryan and Andy Harding, unfortunately these chances were missed with the scoreline staying at 4-0 to secure the league title.

The Men’s B team faced up against league leaders Valkyrs B and gave the westerners a good match with the scoreline finishing a close 4-3 which secured the league title for Valkyrs.
Charlie Bell, Keane Brentley and Jacob Harding grabbing the goals for Vikings to leave them finishing in third place in Division 1.

Unfortunately player availability again hit the Vikings Men’s C team and they had to miss their last match of the season in giving a 5-0 walkover to Ramsey A.
This leaves the Men’s C rooted to the bottom of the table and having the prospect of Division 2 hockey next season.

That’s it for League action for Vikings this season but the Cup, Plate & Bowl Finals are this weekend starting at 12:30 for the Ladies B followed by the Mens A, and Mens B matches !

C’mon VIKINGS !!

Results – 06/04/2024

Vikings Ladies B (Walkover)	5 – 0	Bacchas Ladies C
Vikings Ladies C	1 – 0	Castletown Ladies E	(Jo Roney)
Vikings Mens A	4 – 0	Castletown Mens A	(Scott Mason 2, Macklin Wilson, Josh Dougal)
Vikings Mens B	3 – 4	Valkyrs Mens B	(Charlie Bell, Keane Brentley, Jacob Harding)
Vikings Mens C	0 – 5	Ramsey Mens A (Walkover)