Spalding 2-9 Horncastle

Horncastle travelled to Spalding for what was expected to be their first real challenge of the season with Spalding one place below them in the league.

Horncastle won the toss and elected to push back and start strongly and some slick passing from the Seymours in central midfield and movement from Read up front lead to a short corner, in the opening minutes, which was converted into a 1-0 lead by Dave Seymour.

Horncastle continued to put Spalding under pressure and the continued passing ability of the Horncastle team quickly lead to further goals from Steve Hill and Richard Limmer.

Spalding rallied slightly following the opening 10 minutes onslaught but Horncastle stayed strong in defence with some good marking and tackling back against a tenacious Spalding effort.

An unfortunate incident to a Spalding player when the ball was deflected up into the face of the attacker meant a break in play while the player was attended to allowed Horncastle to gather themselves once again.

Some good link play between D.Seymour and Read and another crisply struck short corner from Dave Seymour put Horncastle 5-0 up going into half time.

The start to the second half brought the best from Spalding as they quickly took advantage of Horncastle complacent re-start and got a goal back.

This seemed to settle Horncastle back into the form they had established in the first period.

Some solid defending from Bell and Kisby and some great possession hockey soon lead to another Horncastle break through with D.Seymour finding Hill who put in their 6th of the day.

Injury to Dan Stones lead to a small reshuffle of the side and James Cartwright took the role of right back.

The rhythm was hardly affected and some more good link up with the defence and midfield, and some great leg work by Stu Trotter on the left and Rob Chamberlain on the right stretched the Spalding defence and allowed the Seymours ample space in the centre of the park. Another well broken down Spalding attack allowed Horncastle to counter with Bell clearing the danger to D.Seymour who found Read on the edge of the Spalding D. Read coolly finished with a reverse stick shot whilst falling to the floor having rounding the oncoming goalkeeper.

Spalding put together another good attacking move and despite a cracking initial save from Gazz Whitham the rebound was slotted away giving Spalding their second goal.

The culmination of what was becoming a progressively more physical encounter was an appalling tackle on Jake Fixter by on of Spalding's more frustrated players.

The game was stopped for a second time whilst Fixter was given time to recover enough to sub himself off the field.

With Spalding reduced to 10 for remainder of the game Horncastle settled into some training pitch hockey.

Some superb work from Stu Trotter down the left as he squared the ball to D. Seymour just inside the 25 who ran the ball into the D and found the far corner of the goal securing his hat-trick and Horncastle's eighth.

Horncastle caught Spalding on the back foot once again with S.Seymour filling the left back role due to the injury to Fixter. S.Seymour released D.Seymour in the centre of the park to feed the ball through to Read who finished the game with his hat-trick and giving Horncastle their 9th of the day.

Team: Gazz Whitham (GK), Dan Stones, James Bell, Daryl Kisby, Jake Fixter, Steve Hill, Dave Seymour (c), Steve Seymour, Stu Trotter, Richard Limmer, Ben Read, James Cartwright and Rob Chamberlain.