Croydon 1 fly high against Bearsted 1Croydon took on Bearsted at home in the Promo League South & East division, the first meeting of the teams this season. Croydon were keen to register a win after a disappointing last gasp draw against Highbury in the same competition. The game started fast, really fast. Goals were banged in willy nilly by both sides with Croydon's James bagging at least a couple, Hudspith continued his good run from middle distance and Bearsted barely missed too. With Pratt converting his penalties with aplomb (something he did all game), the teams raced to 7-3 with barely 8 minutes gone. Then came the lean patch. Bearsted called a time-out and played a much more aggressive front defence and Croydon failed to adapt quickly enough and with Croydon's first attack defending well, the game was locked in stalemate for a good 10 minutes. When the scorer was troubled it was Bearsted who finally broke the deadlock and over the remainder of the half, they slowly edged things and, by the half time whistle, were only a goal down. The 2nd half wasn't quite as turgid for the hosts as the first but they were still not quite firing on all cylinders and whilst the goals were flowing more easily - with James especially having his player on toast all game, they were also being conceded more easily too with some questionable positioning and decision-making largely to blame. The referee was also coming under increasing pressure as the game threatened to get away from him at times. Croydon brought on Vernon Ellis for Withers to provide some impetus and this he did with a number of good penalty shouts before the ball finally found the basket. Meanwhile Croydon seemed to relax into the remaining quarter of the game and gained a healthy lead that they never really looked like giving up. Final score 22-17 and Croydon's unbeaten run will continue into next week's game against their 2nd team. Match Report by Andy | Updated by Andy Previous photo Next photo1 of 1 Final Score: Croydon 1 22 vs 17 Bearsted 1U Player (6)N Hudspith (6)D Pratt (6)A Withers (0)V Ellis (1)G Codd (2)B Sinclair (1)A Jeanes (0)H Robinson (0)Submitted by Anna on 15 Nov 14
