Gore Court 9 - 4 Ashford
Gore Court’s new look Under 16 XI opened their season with a well deserved 9-4 win over Ashford. Gore Court settled quickly, playing positive, attacking hockey and deservedly took the lead from a short corner flicked high into the Ashford net by Jack Pogson. Two goals from James Kennedy plus two more from Pogson to complete his hat-trick, saw the home side reach the interval 5-1 ahead.
The start of the second half saw Ashford come back into the game but despite them scoring two quick goals, strong defending by goalie Tim Simmonds, Matt Hutson, Chris Orr and Conrad Chamberlain, ensured that any ideas the visitors had of a fight back were short lived. Taking the lead from the Gore Court defence, Jack Longley, Ryan Elvy, Connor Annand and Harrison Reynolds quickly regained control of the midfield and began dictating play once more, launching several attacks with Pogson, Kennedy, Will Reynolds and Jessica Buck. Kennedy completed a well deserved hat trick and Will Reynolds scored two smartly taken goals. Annand completed the scoring as Gore Court eventually ran out comfortable winners.
Congratulations to everyone for a great team performance in their first match together.
CANTERBURY 6 - 2 GORE COURT
Gore Court’s Under 16's travelled to Canterbury on Sunday for what was always likely to be a tough game. The score however in no way tells the story of what was an excellent team performance. In fact, Gore Court started the stronger of the 2 teams, quickly settling into some good passing moves which resulted in Matt Hutson calmly putting them into the lead after 5 minutes play. Soon afterwards, a good move involving Connor Annand and Jack Pogson resulted in Will Reynolds increasing the lead. The shock of going 2 down so quickly stung Canterbury into action and they reduced the deficit straight from the restart. They then scored a further 2 goals in quick succession to take a 3-2 lead. Gore Court however refused to let the home side settle and continued to attack through good link-up play between the tireless midfield of Annand, Harrison Reynolds, Will Reynolds and Ryan Elvy. Indeed, after a series of goalmouth scrambles, Court were unlucky not to go into the interval all square, hitting the post with the Canterbury keeper beaten.
The second half saw most of the pressure coming from Canterbury as Gore Court’s first half efforts began to take their toll. Gore Court’s defence of Chris Orr, Jack Longley, Ollie Williams and goalie Tim Simmonds faced numerous attacks on goal but stuck manfully to their task, with Orr and Longley literally putting their bodies on the line at one point. Gore Court’s frontline of Matt Hutson, Jack Pogson and debutants Joshua Wakelen and Anthony Brinkman worked hard with the midfield to get some attacks going but eventually the pressure told, and Canterbury closed out the game with a further 3 goals.
An excellent team performance, characterised by everyone working hard for each other and resulting in their best performance to date. After the game, the Canterbury coach was very complimentary about the Gore Court team’s performance. The many positives from this match will certainly stand the team in good stead for their remainder of the season. Well done everyone, and thanks to all the watching families for giving up their Sunday afternoon to support the boys