Men's Second Eleven Vs Nottingham Players

Epic fight back from understrength 2nd Team revitalises the Derwent resolve.

The second team travelled to the Highfields waterbase to face bottom of the table Nottingham Players. Unfortunately only ten players could make the trip to Nottingham forcing many players to play out of position and requiring Hary Brererton to step up from the third team and club umpire Gary Shardlow to come out of retirement and borrow a hockey stick.

The home team with superior numbers took the lead, with Derwent struggling to cope with the pressure, making some unforced errors. An ufortunate deflection from Harry Breretons foot deflected in to the far corner to put Derwent behind.

Derwent did not lie down, in fact heads were raised and following some great work from Ollie Rhodes, Danny Hendrie, Dave Mcgrillen the Nottingham side were drawn out of their defensive positions allowing Andy Mckeown to drive at the Players defence and beat the keeper.

Derwent maintained the pressure in the second half, but were unfortunate to be caught on a counter attack allowing Players to rtake the lead.  This was further compunded when star sriker Andy Mckeown saw yellow and was sin binned by what appeared to be a rather harsh deciscion.

The Players team used their two man advantage to double their lead following a defensive lapse at the back.

Mckeown was allowed to return the pitch and immediately had an impact, linking up well with Gary Shardlow creating at least two clear cut chances for Shardlow, one saved and one pulled wide.

Mckeown continued to be a constant threat and reduced the deficit with his second open play goal of the day.  The home side continued to try and assert their numerical advantage, but with saves from Ed Berry and key tackles from the defence especially Calum Hopkins kept Derwent in the mach.

Man of the match Dave Mcgrillen rescued the point for Derwent with a mazey run starting around the 25, rounding four players firing a shot in the right hand corner of the goal.

When the final whistle was blown the away team celebrated as is they had just won.

Next week Derwent face another Nottingham side at Wirksworth.