ATHERSTONE ADDERS 13, MALVERN 0

MALVERN men's hockey team travelled to Atherstone Adders to play this return fixture after having out-fought them at the start of the season to record a great win.

This time however, things were very different.

The Malvern team yet again travelled with no recognised goalkeeper as injury and prior arrangements forced Ben Mawby to don the kit for his first competitive game.

Many other first team players were unavailable, captain Brian Crump was injured and work commitments meant that Olly Sermon, Mark Howarth and Kev Somers were missing.

New players were drafted in to fill the gaps in the defence and Malvern were forced to play a five-man midfield to try and stem the Atherstone attacks.

Atherstone scored early in the game from a penalty corner with a well-struck shot. The half continued with the opposition scoring at regular intervals to take an 8-0 lead into the break.

The second-half saw a distinct improvement in Malvern's play with the midfield of Richard Simmonds, Paul Jordan, John Podmore, Dave Sheath and Tristan Price causing problems as they attacked with flair and passion.

The Malvern defence were quite superb with Rich Peate running himself to exhaustion in his quest to keep the scoreline down.

Inevitably though, Atherstone scored five more times during the half to run out 13-0 winners.

Praise must go to Dan Morris, Joe Smith, Rich Cook and Ben Simmonds who stepped in at short notice to help out the team and also to play out of position and Ben Mawby for his fearless display in goal up against a rampant attacking team.

Tomorrow (Saturday), will hopefully see a full strength Malvern play high-flying Barlaston at home.