Fylde 1XI 5-1 Oxton 2XI
North Hockey League Division 3
Fylde men’s 1s looked to continue their unbeaten run this week at home to Oxton 2s.
Missing several key players, young Matt Atkinson was brought up to play for the squad and showed his talents early on in the game slotting straight into the defensive line and passing fluently around the back.
Fylde had much of the possession in the first half which saw Josh Boyne take advantage of some well worked passing movements to slot home from close range within 10 minutes.
Josh Payne made it 2 shortly after and with several chances for the home side going begging it was 3 at the break as Simon Thomas snatched a goal from 5 yards.
Oxton, with no substitutes, tried to slow the game down to give themselves a breather but a revitalised Fylde after half time came out hard and showed their strengths moving the ball around freely and at will.
Josh Boyne made it 4 with a clinical strike from the top of the D on his reverse. Josh Payne added another with his trademark drag flick off a penalty corner. Oxton had a few chances from penalty corners themselves, but be defensive line of Jepson, Swaine, Santamera, Davidson, Rainbow and Atkinson held strong.
Oxton did get one back 2 minutes from time with a well executed penalty corner routine. Man of the match was Chris Banks for his non stop work rate and controlled distribution of the ball throughout the game.
Horwich 1XI 3-4 Fylde 2XI
North West Hockey League Division 2 North
With availability issues across the whole club, Fylde 2’s travelled to Bolton to play Horwich with several changes from the previous week.
Fylde opened the scoring after a run from Aaron Sadler from his own half to the edge of the D, before laying off to Luca Sempers to whip away a shot. Horwich had a number of early attacks, and managed to score from one when a shot wasn’t quite stopped by the defence, the ball rolled just in front of the goal-line for a Horwich striker to poach onto it and help it on its way.
Having conceded one goal, a minute later, Fylde conceded another after some defensive confusion. Aaron Sadler had to leave the pitch due to illness, with Chris Walker replacing him, but it did mean that Fylde had no opportunities for substitutes for the remainder of the game. It was Chris Walker who grabbed the equaliser just before halftime, when a ball was hit from the left wing, with quick touches from a couple of Fylde players deflecting the ball past defenders and the goalkeeper for Walker to parry into the goal.
Horwich came out strongly in huge second half and mounted a series of attacks. Danny Taylor in the Fylde goal made several key clearances and the whole defence held tight facing a number of short corners. However Horwich did manage to score and take a 3-2 lead from a breakaway.
It took a while for Fylde to find their composure and start some attacks of their own. An attack on the right wing with Ryan Nichols fed ball into Luca Sempers in the D, who calmly took possession, spun and unleashed a mighty shot for the equaliser. Shortly afterwards Fylde took the lead through a solo effort from Chris Walker, dribbling through the Horwich defence and then in a goalmouth scramble when both he and the goalkeeper were on the ground, the ball finally found the net. It was clearly controversial as many of the Horwich players were upset about it, but the umpires conferred and the goal was awarded.
Horwich were spurred on in the final ten minutes but Fylde held on for the 4-3 win in a performance of real teamwork.
Fylde 3XI 3-5 Preston 5XI
North West Hockey League Division 3 North
Fylde 3s were hosting Preston 5s at Mill Farm for a derby showdown that would surely bring out only the best of character. Fylde started the game with 10 and were quickly put on the back foot with back to back Preston attacks which grew stronger and stronger as the first and second goals came in quickly from open play. Even when Fylde's 11th man got into the game, Preston were still giving it their all to put a third open play and a fourth from a short corner into the net to make it 4-0 at half time.
Fylde's half time team talk brought a deep desire to comeback in to this game where an attacking short corner was injected by Tim Wilson, received at the top of the D, only to be passed back to Wilson who slot it into the net to give Fylde their first goal of the game. Fylde piled on the pressure and showed no mercy to Preston with an attack by Duke Jones, who's skilful play beat a player, passed the ball along the back line to fellow youngster Alex Eastham who calmly slotted in for his first goal of the season to make it 4-2. Yet again it was all about Fylde in this second half where Duke Jones again came soaring down the right wing, beating every man who stood in his way, reaching the top corner of the D, flipped onto his reverse side and scored an incredible goal into the far corner, marking his first senior goal in high style and giving Fylde the belief that this game was not over yet.
Fylde even came close to an equaliser with Kris Brandwood breaking into Preston's danger area, eyeing up a gap in their defence and firing the ball to the back post where captain Ollie Holmes' diving effort was just inches away from making it a draw. Unfortunately for Fylde, Preston had the last word with a strong counter attack to grab their fifth and final goal of the game, making it a 5-3 win to the away side. Man of the match was goalkeeper Steve Pope who's quality saves were the key in denying the Preston attacks.
Garstang 1XI 1-3 Fylde 4XI
North West Hockey League Division 4 North North
On the morning of the Fylde 4XI match away to Garstang, all did not look promising.
With a player being retrieved by the higher squads at last minute it looked like another 10 man squad however with some rallying around by the younger players, a friend was press-ganged and we were back to 11.
As the start of the game loomed, one of the squad messaged that he was running late so again we were back to 10. After the minute silence for Remembrance and a quick formation reshuffle the game was on.
Fylde pushed hard despite being a man down but didn’t have the strength of numbers up front to finish. The Fylde defence pushed back several attempts by Garstang. As Garstang managed to eventually find the back of the Fylde goal, frustration was starting to build. The Fylde missing man arrived 10 minutes before the end of the first half and things started to change as the half time whistle blew.
In the second half, now back to full strength and the planned formation, things started to go Fylde’s way. A deflection from a Garstang player resulted in an equaliser and the game was back on. A screamer from Martin Hayes and then another from Jay Mayne returning from injury finished the game at 1-3 to Fylde.