Team effort as Lewes win the battle of the 5s

The first bitterly cold Saturday of the season saw the Mens 5s entertain the Worthing 5s for the mid afternoon push back at the Southdown.

Availability was much better this week with a squad of 15 even with all the core midfielders unavailable! Lions Felix and Noah both stepped up for their first taste of adult league hockey and a few others having to play out of position to give the team a good balance.

Early signs from the green 5s were positive with Joe and Rupert looking dangerous up front and it was this combination that opened the scoring with Joe driving with the ball from deep before finding Rupert in the D who hit hard and low into the goal.
With the new look midfield of Peter (playing in his 3rd position in as many games), JC, Julien, Ashley and Tim able to maintain possession and do a good job of finding the forwards in space Lewes were looking more likely to add a second.
At the half the team talk was about maintaining the intensity and good team play going.

The 5s again started strongly Joe was a constant threat to the goal but the Worthing keeper was equal to everything including one truly great save after Joe had taken the ball around him and looked like he only needed to hit the target but the keeper chucked himself at the shot and managed to deflect it away from goal.
Lewes kept up the pressure after the first wave of second half subs and after some good interplay down the left 2 of the subs combined when Alan found Noah just in front of the baseline in the D and from a tight angle slapped a shot into the far side board for a debut goal.

Worthing fought back in the latter stages but the Lewes defence were proving hard to beat Steve and Simon countless times intercepted passes down the middle and the full backs of James, Mark and Felix were denying space to the wingers and were winning their one on one battles, Paul in goal again made some good saves most notably from PCs annd although Worthing did get one goal from a late PC the 5s held onto the win with relative comfort.

So the 5s claim their first win of the season at the Southdown and currently sit comfortably in mid table.
The 5s have found different ways to grind out results this season and so it proved this past Saturday with a shorter passing team play where everyone contributed and both Noah and Felix having impressive debuts.

Next week the Mens 5s head to Worthing to play their 4s.