Cardiff & Met secured
an important 3 points against Cheltenham on Sunday as they came from behind in
a 9-goal thriller to put them 2nd in the National League West
Conference.
After a cagey start to the match which gave little
indication of the goal-fest to come, Cardiff & Met grew into the game and
following a swift counter-attack, Charlie Hunte pounced on a loose ball in the
21th minute to slot home for his 2nd goal in as many
games.
Cheltenham then equalised from a penalty corner five minutes
later and despite Cardiff & Met having the majority of possession and
squandering a couple of half-chances, the two sides headed into half-time with
the score level at 1-1.
Cardiff & Met started the second half with far more
intensity and it reaped immediate rewards as they scored twice in two minutes
courtesy of a pair of reverse-stick strikes from Alf Dinnie and youngster Rhys
Bradshaw who continues his fine start to the season.
This seemed to kick-start the home team into life and a
combination of cards and some sloppy defending allowed Cheltenham to score
three times in five minutes to leave a shell-shocked Cardiff & Met trailing
4-3 with twenty minutes remaining.
The Welsh side showed admirable composure for a young squad
as they calmly tried to work back into the game, and were rewarded for their
efforts when Jack Pritchard deflected home a Luke Hawker pass to make the score
4-4.
Cardiff & Met continued to create chances and following some
fine defensive pressure from Ioan Wall, Pritchard fired home a reverse-stick
winner with ten minutes left to make it 5-4 and secure Cardiff & Met’s 4th
win of the season.
They now sit just two points behind table-toppers Exeter University
with four matches remaining before the winter break.
Next Up// Cardiff
& Met host Isca on Sunday 5th November (12.30 push-back) @ The National
Hockey Centre, WIS.
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