W 15-1

Monday 7th June

Report by Todd Lomas (who scored a hat trick)

With the late evening sun beating down on the water pitch, the Snipers set off at a blistering pace and within the first 10 minutes, Todd Lomas had buried a drag-flick into the middle left side netting. After that goal, the ball rarely entered the Southgate half, only to be deftly handled by Ben Bernades-Cade when it did. Following some excellent build up play by Angus Burns bossing central midfield, he fed Lewis Hollett, who carried the ball into the D, beat two players and selflessly slipped the ball to Todd standing left of the penalty spot for an easy slap over the sliding keeper into the top right. 

The next short corner went wide, however the one after that, won by the usual quick hands of Kabir Bowry was beautifully slotted into the bottom corner by Lewis off the left slip once we acted more pragmatically and recognised the three men running off their LHS (our RHS) post. Before the end of the half, Rob Gill’s breakneck pace broke through from the halfway line to connect with Haimish Patel to increase the scoreline once, then twice with a goal for himself weaving from top D to an impossible angled hit from near the baseline. Unfortunately, our hubris let the opposition play a nice fast break and win a short corner which Veysel Demir, who had until this point had only had a consolation touch off a 16, rushed the player at right slip and conceeded. 

After a passionate teamtalk consisting of “This is going pretty well, lets keep going”, the troops went back out with the sole intention of increasing the scoreline. This thirst was quickly quenched as Todd Lomas claimed his hattrick with a slick dragflick, shinpad height into the bottom left corner. Play carried on in such fashion and the Snipers whipped the ball around like a team of internationals, using the ‘Trent Alexander-Arnold esque’ qualities of Joe Kelly at right back, peppering the WH&E area with cross and D entry, one after the other. A formation change from 4-3-3 to 3-4-3 which was more like a 2-5-3, meant that after the 40 minute mark, Will Hargrove and James Rushton might as well have stayed on tour as the ball didn’t leave the oppo half.

 Lewis showed his class on a short corner at left slip with a reverse hit into the RHS corner and minutes later followed up with another bullet like hit from the top of the D, hattrick number 2. Feeling left out, Haimish subbed Todd off and quickly added himself to the hattrick club with two deft tap ins from crosses from Lik, who himself in his usual fashion wore the defenders down and got a brace of deflections. 

When the score hit 10-1, messages from the skipper were to sit back and retain possession rather than all out attack, however when Lucca Bilyard won the ball multiple times on our 60m press, he wasn’t going to go backwards. Kabir Bowry, a regular scorer for the Snipers who had been focussing on assisting thus far, through quick hands and even quicker reactions got a brace of goals, proving he can do it all. Finally, the man who never fails to disappoint, Rob Gill cleaned up the scoreline to a nice round 15, with a carry from the 25 to penalty spot, beating half their team on the way, and a cool and collected push into the corner. 

Although it may sound like an easy win, nothing should be taken from the work rate and the stylistic mastery that the Snipers played with. If I was the England Hockey coach, id be contacting Neil Prior to call on the Southgate Snipers…

This week Southgate Sabres take on Winchmore Hill & Enfield 1’s on Wednesday night at 20:30.