Second half of pressure finally earned a draw

After playing the first half of this away game before Christmas at the Hawkenbury astro, it was decided that the surface was refreezing and too dangerous to continue. The game was therefore stopped and postponed, meaning Sutton Valence travelled to Tunbridge Well once again, hoping that this time the game wouldn’t be frozen off mid game. With temperatures still at a low 5°C the game was on, but it wasn’t warm! Both teams had managed to get nearly identical teams out from the abandoned game, so it was always going to be a close affair.

Tunbridge Wells took the early initiative as they held possession of the ball and probed at the Sutton Valence defence, and though Valence would clear their lines but the ball quickly came back into their half. Tunbridge Wells finally broke through with a long pass up the pitch finding their striker in the D, who made no mistake. Sutton Valence continued to struggle to retain possession of the ball for the first 25 minutes of the half, but took control in the final 10 minutes. Andy Devlin had 2 chances in the closing minutes and converted one of them. The first chance came through Lewis Mitchell firing a pass into the D which Andy deflected narrowly wide and the second, which resulted in a goal started from a quick 16 yard hit by the Sutton Valence defence. The ball was quickly played through the midfield up to Dave Lewis who took the ball to the base line, passed it across the goal for Andy Devlin to finish. The half ended 1-1.

After the pressure hockey in the last 10 minutes Sutton Valence knew how they need to play in the second half and they continued to put Wells under pressure, retaining possession in a much better manner than they did in the first half. The game was well balanced with both sides attacking each other, until Tunbridge Wells were awarded a short corner 15 minutes into the half which they placed in the bottom left corner. The goal sparked Valence to pile even more pressure on Tunbridge Wells for the rest of the half. The final 20 minutes saw 21 Men playing in the Tunbridge Wells half, and every time they managed to clear their lines Valence put it straight back in the mix. Valence had wave after wave of attacking play and eventually the pressure was too great for Tunbridge Wells as with 3 minutes remaining on the clock Chris Sheldon equalled the score with a well worked goal from open play.
With just a few minutes remaining Sutton Valence felt that momentum was on their side, so they pushed for
the winner, only to be nearly be caught out in the final minute when Tunbridge Wells broke through and a last ditched save off the line from Mark Whitmill kept the game at 2-2.

Before the game both teams knew it would be a close-run affair and 2-2 was probably the right result.

Man of the match was awarded to Pete Rogers for his continued work rate throughout the 70 minutes of play.

MoM: Pete Rogers