Hockey Men’s first

As Varsity was drawing to a close, the scores sat at a precarious fifteen to ten in Aber’s favour Bangor had to win the majority of the remaining events. With three events looking to be leaning Bangor’s way men’s firsts for hockey wanted to add their names to the successful teams, and also complete a whitewash across hockey. However, having played a home game to Chester at 11:00 that morning and driving to Aber in order to compete, the Bangor lads had lost the upper hand.
As the team began to arrive, Aber showed a slight bit of impatience with Bangor being late despite the drive down and gave them minimal warm up time, no more than ten minutes. This would have been ok had all the team arrived at the same time, but, with multiple cars carrying Bangor, the team arrived in dribs and drabs, giving the last group of players two to three minutes of preparation time! With a whole Bangor team present, it was time to get the match underway.
As the first half got underway, Bangor took the game to Aber putting them under immense pressure throughout the opening minutes, creating a significant amount of chances, with Aber’s defence being put to the sword only a fantastic display by the Aber keeper kept things level. As play went on, it was clear Bangor’s early pressure was playing on energy levels as silly fouls were given and the warning card was produced on numerous occasions. Aber were able to utilise the short corners to great effect and managed to pile on the upset as they claimed the first goal shortly after a decision to disallow a goal to Aber was made. This was followed by a decision to disallow a penalty shot to Aber. As the first half drew to a close, the frustration was evident within Bangor as they clearly felt decisions were always against them.
The second half saw Bangor adopt a more conservative style of play with energy levels dropping, however, this proved fruitful as Aber pushed for the killer ball. Bangor were able to launch quick counter attacks and put the pressure on Aber to cause them serious issues, leading to the concession of multiple fouls. From the resulting short corners Bangor looked lethal lining up chance after chance until they were finally rewarded with the equaliser. Lifted by a second wind, Bangor again took the game to Aber, however, silly challenges and dubious reffing led to flared tempers until one Bangor player was sin binned. This was compounded by an injury sustained by a holding Bangor player. It was here Aber pushed, utilising their extra men to run Bangor ragged. Bangor remained strong at the back though, still offering little attacking runs, however, none of these produced clear chances. As the game pulled into the final 5 minutes, it looked as though the game would play out into a draw, Aber had other plans though. With the push and causing of another foul, a short corner was produced, from which they scored a cracking goal, which sealed the game for Aber.
As both teams congratulated each other, it was clear to see Bangor’s disappointment after a fine display considering the circumstances surrounding the game. Maybe if those circumstances hadn’t been there, the outcome could have been in Bangor’s favour. It is still clear to see that one ref clearly favoured Aber as he gave the goal and penalty shot before them being overturned. Also, through the way in which he interacted with the Bangor and Aber players, he approached the Bangor players a lot more aggressively.