Penarth Hockey Club share spoils with Swansea rivals

Swansea 4 - Penarth 4

Penarth's 1st XI travelled to Swansea on the back of a spirited 2 - 2 draw against Swindon the previous Saturday, and knew that a similarly tough encounter was on the cards. Despite ultimately beating their old rivals to the De Cymru & The Marches title last season, the two teams played out a couple of feisty encounters, re-establishing a very fierce rivalry whilst splitting the series with one win apiece.

Penarth started the mid-afternoon fixture the sharper and were quickly on the scoresheet as Joe Thomas carried the ball deep into the opposing 'D', before finding Chris Baker, who expertly dispatched a low reverse-stick shot to notch a team-leading fourth goal of the season.

The high intensity that Penarth were playing with then kept their hosts under pressure, and it wasn't long before the visitors doubled their lead. This time, following a great passing move around the back line, Marcus Powell fired the ball into the 'D' and onto the stick of Phil Lane, whose neat deflection flew past the Swansea goalkeeper and into the top corner of the net.

Despite briefly being reduced to 10 players due to a moment of indiscipline, Swansea managed to survive the continued Penarth pressure, keeping themselves in the game when it could easily have got away from them. The reward came just before half-time when, following an intense 10 minute downpour, the home side found their way onto the scoresheet to take themselves into the half-time break just one goal down.

Despite being pegged back, the second half followed a similar pattern, with Penarth playing at a high tempo and Swansea doing all they could to break play down in their defensive third of the field. Given the apparent Penarth dominance, therefore, it was something of a surprise when it was the hosts that got the next breakthrough, with a smartly taken goal at a penalty corner evening up the tie at 2 - 2.

Losing their advantage appeared to be the prompt for Penarth to raise their game even further, and they were rewarded with a quick riposte as Baker picked up the ball at midfield and beat his marker before finding Lane in the 'D'. Despite still having work to do, the centre forward duly doubled his tally for the game, scoring on his reverse side after beating the solid Swansea 'keeper.

Again, history seemed to be repeating as, having regained the lead, it wasn't long before Penarth got another, this time courtesy of a clever Jack Jopson deflection after good work from Thomas.

The sense of deja vu would continue through the remainder of the half, however, and that wasn’t good news for the visitors. Despite being in control, and having an extra man advantage following more ill-discipline from the Swansea side, the Bears let the hosts back into the game, as a quick counter-attack brought the hosts back into the game at 4 - 3 and, as before, parity would be restored late in the game, as a series of penalty corners allowed Swansea to salvage an equaliser.

Despite controlling the game for much of the 70 minutes, Penarth were thus forced to settle for a 4 - 4 draw following their late collapse, and slip to fifth place in the Conference North standings after three matches.

Goalscorers: Chris Baker, Phil Lane (2), Jack Jopson

Penarth A 2 - Swansea A 2

The Penarth-Swansea rivalry had been renewed earlier in the day as the 2nd XI entertained their foe from ‘down west’ in a noon encounter at Stanwell School.

The weekend started with the visitors topping the De Cymru 1 table and Penarth attempting to close the gap, but the Bears saw no reason why they should not be able to compete on level terms having retained the majority of the side that took a comfortable 8 - 0 win over Whitchurch the previous Saturday. Despite that, however, the first half started with the visitors settling better than the home side and stringing together some good chances, although the Penarth defence managed to deal with most of the pressure and any shots on target were comfortably dealt with by new goalkeeper Simon Comfort.

After soaking up the early pressure, Penarth eventually found their feet and started to play some nice hockey. With play switching from end to end, however, chances that went unconverted came back to haunt the home side and, despite having seen the better of the half, they would fall behind as the visitors converted a ball fired to the far post.

Despite still being a goal down at the interval, Penarth were still very much in the game, and the half-time team talk centred on trying to do much the same as they had in the opening period and not forcing the play in pursuit of an equaliser.

Again, the second half followed the same pattern of the first, with the visiting side seeing the better of the chances, and this eventually led to them doubling their advantage as a straight penalty corner spike found the bottom corner of the Penarth net.

The Bears refused to let the setback unsettle them and battled on, winning a string of penalty corners after concerted pressure in the Swansea end. This eventually led to the deficit being halved as midfield general Mark Thomas found the backboards, snatching a rare goal from a breakdown in the penalty corner routine.

With the game again in the balance, tempers began to fray and, while the Bears largely controlled their emotions, a series of Swansea players were sent to the sin-bin for backchat, giving the home side a further confidence boost heading into the final quarter of the game.

Free to create pressure, both from well-worked moves and quick breaks from the back, Penarth threw everything at the Swansea goal and, having seen one Dave Stevens crash ball sent narrowly wide by Sam Docherty, a change in formation to push five players into midfield eventually yielded a reward as a near identical move saw Stevens’ cross forced across the line by Docherty for a well-deserved equaliser.

The strike was particularly well-timed as the final whistle sounded almost immediately after the restart, denying Swansea a chance to reply as Penarth took a hard-earned point.

Goalscorers: Mark Thomas, Sam Docherty

Gwent B 9 - Penarth C 0

Due to a booking mix-up, the recently-reformed 4th XI saw their opening league match pushed back a couple of hours, and this had an unfortunate effect on the outcome, with two key players being rendered unavailable by the new start time.

As a result, the ‘C-siders’ went into the game with only Graeme Jones, Simon Wilkinson, Zbig Sobiersierski and Derek Wooding as the only seasoned players in a 12 man squad, alongside a pair of 13-year-olds making their senior debut and a returnee to hockey who hadn't played in decades.

Ironically, it was the experienced defence that was to blame for the majority of the first half goals, with a young Gwent side able to find lots of space in the ‘D’ due to poor marking. Penarth were undeniably rusty, having not played together as a full side prior to the game, but Gwent were also fortunate in that everything they touched in the ‘D’ seemed to find the net, giving them an unrealistic - but still insurmountable - 7 - 0 lead at half-time.

A tactical reshuffle during the interval saw the experienced Adam Morse move to marking centre back with young Rhys Meddins taking up the challenge on the right of the defence and, combined with better organisation as a unit, the second half was move even, with Gwent only adding a couple of goals to their tally.

Penarth’s increased involvement in the game, and spells of good passing hockey, resulted in half a dozen penalty corners and numerous shots on goal that could easily have seen them win the second period and could have easily won the second half after an ominous start to the afternoon.

Whitchurch D 2 - Penarth B 2

The 3rd team played a friendly game against a Whitchurch team from one division above them, and produced a solid overall performance, with two goals from Dave Watkins and a couple of excellent Mark Harris saves earning a creditable 2 - 2 draw.

All four Penarth sides will be in action this weekend, with the 1st XI hoping for a big attendance on the sidelines as they attempt to return to winning ways against mid-table Devizes at Stanwell School (1.45pm start). Things don’t get any easier for the 2nd XI, however, as, having faced one top-of-the-table side in Swansea, they take on another as they travel to take on Cardiff University in the capital. The 3rds, meanwhile, will try their luck against the free-scoring Gwent B side as the 4ths get a taste of the Swansea rivalry with another away fixture.

Penarth Hockey Club always welcomes new, old and returning players, umpires, supporters, friends and helpers regardless of age and ability. Training takes place on Wednesdays at Stanwell School, with the juniors on the pitch between 6.15pm and 7.15pm and the seniors between 7pm and 8.15pm.

Anyone interested in joining the club at senior or youth level can contact club secretary Dave Stevens (d_stevens81@hotmail.co.uk) for further information.