Men’s Pen B vs Waverley | 1-5 LOSS | S.Hollow

Not the start to the season that the Men’s Pennant B side were hoping for; but not the one-sided game that the score line suggests it might have been.

Waverley were hard at it form the 1st whistle and Knox spent the vast majority of the 1st half defending resolutely in front of keeper Singh in his first game back at the club following a stint at Kew. 0-1 down at half time was a fair reflection on the game and it was clear that the new faces to the team would take a little while to bed down and get used to the increased speed of the Pen B competition. It was also very clear that a few of the older heads in the team had “enjoyed the summer off”.

The 2nd half saw Knox make a few tweaks to personnel and positioning, resulting in a much more even contest in general play. Knox started to cause Waverley some problems at the back and a trademark through ball from Skooter picking out Lutzie bought the crowd to life; however the self appointed #deflectionking couldn’t find the target sending the ball across goal towards the back stick where debutante Maksis Darzin, impressive in his 1st senior start, sent the ball narrowly wide sliding in on a very wet pitch.

The more expansive forward play by the away side unfortunately left more spaces for a well drilled Waverley side to exploit and a number of attacks led to the home team winning multiple penalty corners and cirlce penetrations leading to a number of goals. One such break away saw President Sullivan [Make Knox Great Again] as the last man in defence, chasing back hard his fantastic work to intercept the cross was immediately undone as he swept the ball away with the back of his stick, resulting in a stonewall penalty stroke, expertly dispatched by the Waverley forward.

With the score now at 5-0 to the home side it would have been understandable for heads to drop amongst the boys from Knox but the hunger to improve was evident for all to see right until the final whistle. No more of a perfect example than when great forward pressure from Jim Bell lead to a sloppy cross field pass by a Waverley defender that was picked off by capatin Lutzie. Gracefully side stepping the 1st challenge just inside the dotted line Hollow looked up to see PK all alone inside the circle. Using PK’s presence to sell the fullback more candy than Waverley’s canteen had sold the Hart kids throughout the afternoon, Lutzie turned on the after-burners to surge into the circle and delicately chip the ball over the onrushing keeper.

An impressively assured display earned Nuwy the Hogs Breathe best on ground award, closely followed by Corza who looked at home in his 1st game in Pen B.