It was an afternoon full of drama at the Griff on a belting afternoon of weather (with Caledonian heritage me getting the sunburn to pay for it). But that was far from the most eventful event of the afternoon, where the men lost their match at the death, but the women winning theirs in similar fashion.
Men’s Match
The match opened in a very cagey manner, with King’s dominating the possession, and were gifted a guilt-edged chance to open the scoring with an open goal opportunity which went agonisingly wide from 10 yards out.
However, this woke Gower up, and they scored with their first shot on goal on a counter attack, and gained the impetus in the game.
Toward the end of the 1st period, the match developed into a more end-to-end affair, with King’s scoring a nice longshot before Gower swiftly replied, and King’s then replied with a corner move from ‘Mikey’. Sin bins//1 minute penalties were starting to be picked up like wildfire too.
King’s came out firing in the 2nd half and began to dominate the match, with a brilliant mixture of flair ridden attacks and patient offensive play. They have a quick double of goals, with number 36, ‘Andy’, with the goal of the match with a brilliant jinking run to make it 5, with UCL making it 5-3 to mount their comeback.
It then turned into a panicked defensive display from King’s- despite another tekky goal from number 36, they began tiring in the heat and began to leak goals with sloppy defending. Still, King’s went into the final 2 periods with an 8-5 lead, where a rallying team talk was delivered.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the tonic which was needed. More defensive lapses were punished by a revitalised Gower, and they gradually succumbed to an agonising 8-10 defeat under the pressure.
Gutting.
Women’s Match
Going 1-0 down after 10 seconds was not the ideal start for King’s here, but they swiftly put that disappointment behind them to blitz Gower in the 1st period through their attacking quality, with number 68 instrumental in all of their plays.
Racing into a 4-1 lead going into the 2nd period, which was bolstered by a 5th goal, King’s perhaps got complacent and conceded a barrage of goals, leaving the spoils 5-5 at half time in a very lively 2nd period. At this stage, we were fearing a repeat narrative of the men’s match in glorious failure. But thankfully, this wasn’t to be.
Although UCL started the 3rd period by going 6-5 up, King’s made it 6-6 with a nice passing move. Then followed a tit-for-tat frenzy of scoring, with King’s going into the final period with an 8-7 lead after some stellar goalkeeping saves.
After seemingly solidifying their advantage by maintaining their 2 goal lead, in the final minutes King’s conceded 2 to leave the scores at 11-11 on the final whistle.
After some shambolic decision making from the referee, hoping to call the match as a draw (yes, a Varsity match, as a draw!?), both sides agreed to a golden goal decider.
No problem for King’s, who scored with their first attack.
Bedlam on the touchline and on the pitch. And thoroughly deserved after last, and this year’s showing.
Well done. 1 each at the end here.
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