MINEHEAD & West Somerset Hockey Club’s men’s 2nds travelled to Bristol to play Bristol and Wests 6s - and gained a 7-2 victory.

Minehead started well but it was clear the Bristol side had a stronger team than they were expecting which the visitors needed to respond to. Minehead kept play in their half and had some opportunities at goal but struggled to get relatively easy shots on target with frustrations showing.

The game wasn’t helped by one of the umpires who wasn’t shy to use his cards with two of their players serving greens and yellows for ‘sloppy’ rather than malicious tackles. At one point Minehead had only nine players on the pitch!

Minehead managed to finally get goals away with Boltz, Will, Morris and Pilch all managing to find the goal with a particularly strong shot from Morris. However, Minehead did concede one goal ending the first half 4-1 ahead.

The second half started badly; within a few minutes Simon Strong receiving a second yellow card which upgraded to red - a very harsh decision (and technically massively questionable) and to a veteran of the game with an unblemished record over his decades of service…controversial!

Minehead had to soldier on with 10 men trying to keep game play together. This was not helped by the umpire’s frivolous card giving (to both sides) which kept interrupting play despite the game and conduct between both sides being very cordial. Minehead let slip through a poor unforced error passing backwards to allow Bristol and West a second goal.

Minehead needed to keep our heads to maintain and ideally increase their lead given their ten men and theye could not seem to shake off sloppiness. As the last 10 mins approached they were rewarded with further goals through Will, Pilch and Boltz.

Despite the score, it was not the most enjoyable game Minehead have played but adds some good goals to help their goal difference.

Minehead men’s 3s travelled to Ottery with a bare 11 players to face Sidmouth & Ottery 4s who had previously cancelled two away matches at Minehead, so this was their first encounter of the season.

Minehead looked strong from the outset but spent some time testing a youthful but well drilled opposition. A great pass from Ben Moody to Max got the scoring started followed by another successful shot on goal by Richard Darlington.

After this Minehead’s defence fumbled the ball during a high press by the young S & O forwards who attacked resulting in the ball being kicked across the line by the Minehead GK.

Fortunately a swift restart resulted in a goal by Will Reed to finish the first half 3-1 in Minehead’s favour.

The second half saw the away side playing into the wind but the home side missing their goal keeper. Eleven outfield players for S & O made Minehead work and a scrappy goal was awarded to Richard Darlington, coming off an opposition defender.

Max scored his second with a fantastic shot, earning himself MoM in the process. The rest of the match was a stalemate with Minehead struggling to use space on the right wing and being kept busy by a very capable home side. A great 5-2 win for Minehead 3s.

Sadly, adverse weather meant Minehead Mens' 1’s had to postpone their match against an unwilling to travel Chard team.