Bath away, Prem - 9 Dec 2006

Starting with only 10 men, including 4 long-sticks, Purley were always going to find this a tough game. Purley decided to play all 4 long-sticks with long-stick middie Ian Nesbitt playing attack and defence, rather than have one of them use a short stick. Purley didn't start too well - the attack were in run n' gun mode, trying to force an opening as soon as they had the ball, which gave Bath plenty of possession and only a couple of fine saves by Paul Terry kept the home side out. The usually pristine Bath pitch was very sticky and difficult to pick up on, which made every ground ball contestable. Initially it was Bath who were coming up with the ball far too often, and for the first ten minutes it looked like this would be a very tight game. However the Purley attack were starting to adjust to the long-stick in offence, and a well worked move found Matt Payne one-on-one with the Bath keeper. Matt duly slotted the ball home, but in an attempted take-out the Bath keeper twisted his knee and had to be replaced by one of their defenders. Purley started to control the ball more, and goals from Jesse O'Hanley, and then Ian Nesbitt gave Purley a 3-0 quarter time lead.

Bath scored first in the second quarter to bring it to 3-1, but as the game wore on Purley were gaining more and more possession, and three more goals saw them go in at the half 6-1 up. Purley were also starting to gain more possession from the face-off. Missing usual face-off man Luke Smith, stand-in Dave Cluney was doing an excellent job in the middle. The more the game went on the better he got, and Dave topped a fine performance with a well taken cut, and lefty goal in the third. Bath also lost another defenceman with a hamstring injury, which didn't help their cause, and Purley then cruised to a comfortable victory with 4 goals in each of the last 2 quarters to bring the final score to 14-1.

Goals: Jesse O'Hanley 5, Matt Payne 4, Jamie Tasko 2, Ian Nesbitt 2, Dave Cluney 1

Ref: Miles Whittle