Southgate showed their mettle to recover from a 2 goal deficit to take home a big 3 points in Cardiff on Saturday night.
Cardiff & Met 2 Southgate 3
Sophia Gardens is a great place to watch hockey and a tough place to travel 4 hours to play hockey. Southgate showed their steel despite a tricky start when two Cardiff corners beat Calum Douglas to give the home side a clear advantage which they took all the way into the half time break, Ioan Wall doing the damage in the 6th and 9th minutes from top D.
The early goals put Huw Stevens’ side on the back foot and despite much energy it was much ado about nothing for a key passage of play. Sean Davis went closest putting a ball across the face of goal from a well judged aerial deep into the D.
Southgate’s Archie Foster. Cardiff & Met v Southgate – EHL Men’s Premier Division at Welsh Institute of Sport, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, UK on 01 March 2025.
Photo by Simon Parker/SP Action Images
Despite the lead the Cardiff support was quiet in spite of the large attendance and it began to get even quieter when Southgate started Q3 with a real sense of intent and purpose. A series of corners went unconverted until Dan West picked up a mist rapped ball and ran it hard round the left hand side of the D before reversing it high over Cardiff keeper Jack Pritchard to bring the visitors back into the game.
Southgate’s Dan West. Cardiff & Met v Southgate – EHL Men’s Premier Division at Welsh Institute of Sport, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, UK on 01 March 2025.
Photo by Simon Parker/SP Action Images
The 5 visiting Southgate supporters soon found their voices and Southgate continued to press hard creating a series of chances and upwards of 12 corners which were well ran down or saved. It took until the 50th minute for Archie Foster to get his name on the scoreboard repeating history from the last game in 2023 between the two sides at Sophia Gardens and bringing parity to the contest.
The final quarter was a much more keenly matched affair and a nail biting test of endurance of both sets of spectators. Cardiff created plenty of chances and had their own run of PC’s well down by Charles Hamilton and fended off by Douglas. Ali Douglas moving to right half back had a dominant game and helped create a lot of play down the right channel finding connections with West, Sofat and Davis. Yet it was Davis who to a resonant cheer heard in Swansea picked up a ball from a Jack Middleton aerial in space in the Cardiff D and using some canny elimination skills beat his man before beating Pritchard with a fine finish in the top of the goal netting in the 67th minute.
Southgate’s Archie Foster. Cardiff & Met v Southgate – EHL Men’s Premier Division at Welsh Institute of Sport, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, UK on 01 March 2025.
Photo by Simon Parker/SP Action Images
Yet still the game was not down in the final seconds Cardiff won a PC which was well run down, the Southgate coach ceased his ability to watch the game as the umpire awarded a re-award- which again was run down, which led to another re-award…and another…and another until Wall sent it wide thus closing the contest as the Southgate players celebrated a huge 3 away points to help their climb up out of the relegation zone in the Premier Division.
They face a stern test on saturday as they take on East Grinstead at home. Be sure to get down to the Gate to cheer on the team.
