Manhattanville

After a short break we travelled downstate to Manhattanville College for a tournament that they were hosting. We were desperate to do well in it because of the disappointment at Norwich. A lot of our players are from the area around Manhattanville and so it was a great trip for people to see friends and family. It is hard for athletes sometimes because they don’t have the spare time to visit home like regular students do and so trips like this can do wonders for morale. Our first game was against the hosts Manhattanville, we knew they were going to be good but we didn’t realize how good they would be. The first half was an eve affair and in some ways we probably edged the momentum. We managed to score a fortunate goal after Stejpan Bandov raced in behind their defenders and crossed it to Mike Payne. Payne then took a shot that bounced off the ground and somehow beat the goalkeeper, it was a huge goal and it was only around 20 minutes into the game. Payne has already scored three times this year and he can be a big player for us if he stays healthy.

The 2nd half was almost like two different teams came out as they absolutely dominated us from the start to the finish. We started to sit back and just try and absorb the pressure but they just kept coming and their movement off the ball was tremendous. They had some terrific individual players who caused us a lot of problems. In the end Andy (Heighington), our goalie, had a brilliant game and so did our defenders. It took a complete team effort to pull out the win because our backs were against the wall for a long time. Players like JJ (Joey Jones), Chad (Shennett) and Matt Martin gave us some good minutes in positions that they weren’t used to.