Gravesham and Wellcome 2s travelled the short distance to Medway the new home of K Sports Hockey Club looking to build on the huge win at home to Maidstone the week before putting them back into the race for promotion/title contention.

A few of the normal squad were available again with Jesse Bradley returning to the side along with Jon Booth in midfield. Mason and Daniel also promoted from the GW 3s squad for the away fixture. K Sports looked to be a tough away fixture with some strong results in recent weeks putting them in 6th place.

K Sports began the first half fairly strongly, with an early goal scored by the lanky blonde haired 53, with a fine reverse strike into the net, very little keeper Stapley could do. Stapley looking for another clean sheet, felt like leaving after only 5 minutes or so, but in fairness from there K Sports offered very little, and it pretty much became the Alamo as GW2s took control and it became a matter of time before they levelled.

GW created multiple chances mainly for the recently goal shy forward Andy Simpson who made it 3 successive games without troubling the scorers. It wasn't for the want of trying with 8/9 chances finding the target, the keeper playing well, even saving the first of these with his head.

GW did however level midway through the first half, Matty Lucas picking up the ball close to goal and firmly finishing past the keeper, 1-1. Ollie Simpson on for captain Aaron Elliott then missed another good chance close in after a nice cross from Jordan Jenkins. But he was given the harder chance to rectify this almost immediately when put through on goal by Andy Simpson, and he slotted the ball home to the keepers right. 2-1 GW. This is how it remained until Halftime. It was still a battle, and the captain had an inspired half time teamtalk.

The 2nd half was one way traffic in a simply superb dominant 2nd half performance.

This started almost immediately with now GW2s trademark pushback, aerial from Steve Caulfield to Andy Simpson, shot again saved well by the K Sports keeper.

Andy Simpson again played Ollie Simpson in on goal, again finishing to the corner to the keepers right leaving him no chance. This was quickly followed by a lovely cross field pass from Ollie Simpson to Andy Simpson who ran towards goal before finding the right back Daniel somehow having raced forward, slotting into the bottom left corner, leaving the keeper literally stranded. 4-1 GW2s.

GW were now storming the KSports goal and they had no answers. A defensive clearance from K Sports fell to Steve Caulfield in the centre of the D. There was no other outcome than a goal, thundered in extremely close to Andy Simpson blocking the keepers view, with the latter praying he would avoid A and E. 5-1 GW.

The game and subsequent result would not have been complete without the captain jumping into the goal action. A ball slipped to Elliott on the left side of the D by Jesse Bradley was initially saved by the keeper, but Elliott kept his composure sweeping the ball over the keeper into the roof of the net. And with a trademark celebration not seen since Alan Shearer holding his hand in the air at St James Park, Elliott emulated Shearer as he stood back up. Not the first or the last time we ll see that celebration.

A thoroughly deserved and team effort in a potentially difficult game. A huge 3 points, and described by Elliott afterwards as potentially our best performance of the season.

MOM : Ollie Simpson

DOD : Andy Simpson 9 missed chances

Special mention : Daniel - effort/performance/goal from RB

Author: Andy Simpson