2nd Xl unlucky to lose close game

Valence travelled to Tunbridge Wells for a late pushback in the penultimate game of the season. Stand-in captain Abrahams set the tone by winning the game of 'find the whistle.' Valence started the game brightly and had the better of the early chances. Despite this Tunbridge Wells looked organised, fast and dangerous on the counter-attack.

Valence found out just how dangerous when Tunbridge Wells, to Valence's ire, moved the ball maybe a little too quickly from a free hit bursting into the Valence D and winning a short corner. The short corner was saved by keeper Mackay practicing his drop goals for the Six Nations. Defender Olly Sheldon managed to twist himself out of the way just the nick of time but the T.Wells' forward wasn't so lucky, taking it on the chin quite literally. The follow up short was converted with a very well struck hit.

A few minutes later, lightning struck twice as again T.Wells had the perhaps too quick free hit to then win a second short corner. Captain Abrahams also earned himself a warning for expressing his displeasure. The initial shot was blocked on the post but the rebound fell to the T.Wells' forward who made no mistake to double their lead.

Having already caught the attention of the umpire Abrahams doubled down with an overly robust stick tackle/body check combo on a self-taken sideline ball to earn himself some reflection time at the side of the pitch. A foul - definitely, a short corner - probably, a card - a little harsh in this humble scholar's opinion. During this time Valence succumbed to a third short corner and despite being the better side for much of the half came into the break 3-0 down.

Valence continued to be the better side controlling the majority of the possession, pushing high as a team into the T.Wells half and creating a number of good chances. The T.Wells' goalkeeper had other ideas and pulled off what seemed like some impossible saves. Eventually Valence found a chink in the armour and pulled a goal back through a short corner of their own with Chris Stille finishing from a tight angle following a well worked passing short corner routine.

Ed Hawes-Gatt then pulled a second goal back causing panic amongst the T.Wells players. Unfortunately T.Wells responded instantly taking advantage of a rare defensive error on a breakaway to add a 4th goal. Unperturbed Valence continued to dominate the game forcing chance after chance and Ed Hawes-Gatt managed to bag a third after some more crisp passing.

Under this pressure, while Valence pushed for the equaliser T.Wells started to crumble, resorting to lumping the ball as far away from their goal as possible to earn the briefest of respite and 'sportingly' telling their youngsters not to retrieve the ball if it went off for a Valence hit to run down the clock just a little bit more. In the end, they just managed to cling on the take the points but Valence came away knowing that to a man they had all put in a great performance and dominated the game in every aspect except for goal scoring and even then, given an extra 10 mins the equaliser could well have been on the cards. From the way one T.Wells' player exhuberantly celebrated the win the relief seemed to be on a level similar to winning the World Cup which is testament to the hard work and overall Valence performance.

Goals: Chris Stille; Ed Hawes-Gatt (2)

Team: Ross Mackay; Steve Parker; James Abrahams; Olly Sheldon; Ben Tragett; Ed Hawes-Gatt; Andy Barr; Alex Hodges; Alastair Robinson; Chris Stille; Chris Sheldon; Tom Willson.

Match report by James Abrahams.

Next week the 2nd Xl have a game-free week due to the withdrawal of their opposition from the Division.