Sutton Coldfield 2s v Finchfield 2s: 3-4

Fresh off a traffic filled journey over to Wolverhampton, the men's 2s were delighted to find no game on before their 13:30 game at the Royal Wolverhampton School and the rare chance to enjoy a full warm up on pitch. Perhaps there's something in this as it only took 1 minute and 20 seconds for Sutton to take the lead through a lovely team move finished off by Bryan Riscoe.

Maybe it was the excitement of such a good start. Maybe it was coming to terms with playing on a pitch that isn't regulation size (it's smaller than normal for those interested). Either way, Finchfield equalised almost straight away so 1-0 became 1-1 a lot faster than was ideal.

As the first half developed, a clear pattern emerged. Sutton pressed well and with good intensity and had lots of positive attacks but getting the ball in the back of the net proved a challenge. Finchfield however went down the robust tackling route. A neutral may say this could have warranted a few cards but with said cards clearly being saved for a special occasion, it was up to Sutton to keep their composure and not get involved (apart from Ryan, he loves it).

Half time 1-1. An improvement from 0-1 last week.

The half time team talk and general notion of "let's score more than the opposition" was a great success...for Finchfield. They scored 2 to make it 1-3. Archie Cleaver cut the deficit by one from a penalty corner to make it 2-3.

Could the 2s do it again, come back from a 2 goal deficit twice in 2 weeks? No, Finchfield made it 2-4. Ryan got his second to make the final few minutes tense again at 3-4 but Finchfield showed their experience to keep the ball in the corner and eventually see out the win.

A decent game between two good sides with the difference boiling down to the team that was far more clinical in front of goal taking the win.

Enjoyable moments included Sam H trying to play in a bib and Ollie H being a lot more keen to get the play going than the Umpire - he ain't got time to wait for no whistle man.

Special mention to Alex T and Archie C but MOTM went to Ryan Briscoe. If he gets picked for the 1s now like our last MOTM I'm going to start lying about who gets the award next time...

Next week the 2s host Stratford 2s at Wyndley at 13:00pm where they will seek their first win of the season. All support is always greatly appreciated.

Written by: Teun de Nooijer