HC Voyager 50s vs Nailsea Vets 50s

Match Reports

Praise to both sides for fielding teams when it was looking doubtful we’d have enough players but the game went ahead as scheduled on another bright and sunny Sunday morning. Unfortunately there wasn’t a referee available so as the home team the Voyager sub took responsibility to officiate. All players involved were incredibly respectful and largely ‘self policed’ the game which made for a very friendly encounter.

Within two minutes Nailsea were a man down with Steve pulling a muscle so one of our two subs was immediately called upon as a replacement. Both teams had plenty of possession in the first 10 minutes but Nailsea took the lead through Gary Himsworth as he received the ball wide on the right side of the penalty box and with a fine first time shot drilled in low to the keepers left from 12 yards out.

After 25 minutes Nailsea extended the lead through Alex who mirrored Gary’s goal but this time a  shot on the turn low to the keepers right from the left side of the box.

Voyager had several chances of their own and were rewarded with a penalty on 35 minutes after Jonesey bundled into the back of a Voyager player. 2-1.

A late flurry of action at the end of the first half saw Nailsea go in at half time 4-1 up. Our third was a close range tap in from Buzz who followed up from a Lee Cogan shot that the keeper could only parry into his path. Lee eventually notched himself after threatening for much of the half after his first shot was blocked and the rebound fell to him to fire in from 8 yards out.

Thoughts of our last game (5-1 up at half time only to draw 5 -5) came to mind when Voyager pulled one back within 2 minutes of the restart with a bullet header from a corner kick. Not again…. surely? Fortunately not. Lee gave us a 3 goal cushion again with a 20 yard strike into the roof of the net and although Voyager pulled another one back from another headed goal from a corner, Matt Gigg heard the shout “have a go yourself” from 25 yards out, so did and made it a comfortable 6-3 lead on 80 minutes. Lee rounded off a great performance with a final goal to claim his hat-trick in the dying minutes to make the final score 7 -3.

Well done to Voyager for holding the fixture that had been in some doubt a week earlier.