Bowdon Killer Bees 1 - 4 Runcorn

The Bees entertained Runcorn on the No1 grass pitch on Saturday with confidence high after a good performance last week. Runcorn started the game strongly and took the lead with a smart reverse stick finish by their centre forward midway through the first half. The Bees equalised from a well worked, although slightly fortuitous short corner within minutes and looked likely to take the lead after some excellent pass and move hockey. That was until the new look Bees defence were caught napping again, and Runcorn took the chance to move ahead from an all too simple short corner. Stand in keeper Yokker made a couple of excellent saves before another short corner before half time saw Runcorn increase their lead, again with some help from the Bees defence.

After a good talking to at half time, and the introduction of West, the Bees started the second half well and were unlucky not to score on a number of occasions, just lacking the killer finish required. Runcorn were reduced to only a few ventures into the Bees half and rarely threatened, until a dubious short corner was awarded after what looked like a good tackle from Braithwaite. Again it was a disorganised Bees defence that allowed the Runcorn attack far too much time to get a shot away, although Yokker was unlucky not to save the scuffed shot. The Bees threatened on a number of occasions towards the end but again were unable to finish after some good flowing hockey. A poor result, but the team can take heart from a much improved second half performance against a well organised Runcorn team.

Andy White

(Hey look everyone, a proper match report, with no abusive comments about the captain, or the half time speech(es), or anything! Factually correct, reading it actually reminded me of the match - novel, eh? I think Richard C scored our 'fortuitous' goal off a devilish pass from Cheets, but if I'm wrong some indignant soul will no doubt email me - the main thing is that it wasn't Yokker . As Andy mentions, the second half was soooooo much better than the first half. This could be because (a) the umpiring was incisive in the second half, (b) the team was treated to not one but two half time lecturettes , either of which may have been the inspirational one... or (c) the skipper did the decent thing & decided to captain by telepathy from the sideline while our fixtures secretary did some magic in the defence. Well done to anyone (most people) who played out of position - Giles will have to watch his left wing position after Mr Cooper's performance, and of course Yokker, whose awesome ability to influence the scoreline was once again demonstrated all too clearly...)