A lovely morning for hockey saw us at Reading Uni for a 10am start against Phoenix. Under blue skies we got off to a strong start. With some good flowing hockey we maintained possession for large chunks of the first 10 minutes which were relatively uneventful - we were pressing well though and most of the game was being played in their half.

We had a couple of short corners from probing attacks, but were unable to convert. A chance eventually presented itself when James played a ball across the D to Tim who deflected it well towards goal, forcing a good save from the keeper. Phoenix were getting strong balls out of their 16, with some big hits getting through and causing us a few scares in defence, but we held solid and Dave, Colin, Tom and Dave largely kept them out of our D with some strong tackles.

We continued to cause them problems though and more of the game shifted towards their D, with a number of opportunities and shots either being saved or going just wide. Eventually we were rewarded from a short corner when a solid strike from Ed hit the post and dropped back to Viren for a deft flick into the corner. 1-0, and that was how the first half ended.

After a rousing half-time tirade from all and sundry, we stepped back onto the pitch ready to push home our advantage and close out the match with another goal. We had them under pressure from the start with some really good passing moves through the midfield, particularly Yuvraj and Ed - which created some good chances for the forwards, but despite numerous efforts and some good saves from their keeper we weren't able to extend our lead.

The final 10 minutes of the game proved to be challenging with Phoenix pushing hard for an equaliser and winning a number of short corners which were well defended by Tyler in goal. Finding ourselves down to 10 men following a 50:50 shoulder to shoulder with one of their midfields, Mark was given a yellow,! Phoenix won another short corner and we were in trouble. They managed to get a cracking shot at goal, which beat Tyler but was miraculously stopped on the line by Dave M, who then quickly cleared it off the side. This was shortly followed by the final whistle and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Our second resounding 1-0 victory in two weeks, and we head into next week's home game against Slough on the cusp of a winning streak..!!!

Man of the Match - Dave Merriman

Match Report - Tim Brennan