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Seconds smash Lions for six

Coalville Town 2nd XI  6  Northampton Lions 2nd XI  1

BodyKraft 2nd XI East Midlands Premier Division

Town’s second X1 turned in a super display of fast and furious attacking hockey to thrash the team that were promoted with them last season, and make it two wins on the trot to put their campaign back on track. 

Fielding a slightly weaker team than last week, Town were easy winners against a disappointing visiting team. However in the early stages they did not have things all their own way as Northampton were always dangerous on the break and should have done much better with their finishing.  

  The game started with both teams looking for a quick early goal but Town were to fall behind after only three minutes, conceding a sloppy goal. The visitors broke through the middle and hesitancy between Sam Crowie and Ian Wright stranded keeper Joel Barker, allowing the visitors to stroll through to score. 

This appeared to wake Town up, and a slick interchange of play between Scott Meadows and Niki Arnold allowed Matt Taylor through for the equaliser after five minutes to open his goal account for the club.  

They quickly added a second goal two minutes later when Taylor returned the compliment for Arnold to fire home and Town were suddenly in control.  Further chances for Meadows and Arnold went begging before they went three-one up with a fortuitous third after 15 minutes. Town forced a penalty corner and Brent Clamp’s delivery went straight to Arnold whose strike at goal hit a Northampton stick which saw the ball fly up and loop over the keeper and high into the net.

The visitor’s strong running caused the odd problem for the Town defence but they found the target difficult to find. Ian Wright, playing the pivotal defensive role, tightened up play at the back and with Sam Crowie, Stuart Jobburn and Steve Partner putting in the tackles alongside him, Barker had little to do in the Town goal.  

Coalville now had virtual control of the midfield with skipper Tony Crowie calling the shots, with strong support coming from Richard Wright and Clamp, who were both having outstanding games. With Arnold causing problems for the visitors up front, Town made it four after 24 minutes, when he combined cleverly with Scott Meadows whose angled strike from the right of the dee flew into the net with the keeper well out of position. 

The introduction of Mark Taylor made the middle even stronger as Town poured forward looking for more goals but the visitors held out although Meadows and Arnold came close with further opportunities, before the half closed with Town completely on top.

The second half started where the first had finished and after two minutes of the half, Town made it five. Superb approach play by Tony Crowie and Arnold split open the visitors defence, and the final pass found Clamp in the dee who had no problem slotting the ball past the helpless keeper. 

Although on the end of a thrashing, Northampton still came forward and a shot from the right of the dee struck a post before going behind, but generally their chances were few and far between. Arnold was having a fine game up front, holding onto the ball as the support came through, and some intelligent passes through the visitors defence provided Town with many scoring chances but poor finishing let them down.

However Town made it six after 47 minutes when Arnold again pounced on the ball from the back and his pass found Clamp who broke through to slot home his second of the game. Play was all one way now but Town backed off as the game wound down, however one last chance fell to Meadows who broke though from the left only to see his reverse stick strike smash against the post and bounce out to safety.

An easy win for Coalville despite missing some key players. However they won’t find too many teams as poor as this Northampton side in the premier division, but playing the way they do, straight and fast, should start to see them climb the league as the season unfolds.