Heavy Defeat against ECU

Match Report - Premier League Phase 2 – ECU versus Peterborough - 20th May 2023
Match Report by Terry Oakley
Premier League – Phase 2
ECU versus Peterborough
20th May 2023 at Ross Peers Leisure Centre, Soham

ECU Squad

40 Hattie Ford (Goalkeeper – Played whole game)
  6 Max Dunand
  7 Luis Gomes
13 Scarlett Courtenay- Barrow
25 Martin Walker
27 Tony Wilson (Captain)
34 Pedro Goncalves
35 Diogo Mota
60 Sarah Moffat (Goalkeeper)

Peterborough Squad 
1  Anthony Williams (Goalkeeper – played second half)
2  Tom Hillam
3  Jake Reed
4  Declan Lander
5  Michael Carter (Captain)
6  Harry Hillam
7  Josh Aaltonen
8  Luca Oakley
9  James Berry
10 Tyler Salmon (Goalkeeper – played first half)

Referees:- Zak Robinson and Chris Freeman 
For the first three or four minutes play was fairly even but Martin Walker latched onto a misplaced pass, lost his marker and sprinted forward to place his shot into the top right hand corner of the Peterborough net. 
ECU 1 Peterborough 0  

A minute later and Peterborough had a let off when Martin Walker hit a fine slapshot which struck the Peterborough crossbar and bounced to safety.  However, ECU were not to be denied their second goal and it arrived shortly after this as Luis Gomes found himself in space and he placed a fine slapshot into the top right hand corner of the net. 
ECU 2 Peterborough 0  

Peterborough continued to play open hockey and were rewarded when a shot from Harry Hillam was parried by the ECU goalkeeper and Josh Aaltonen snapped up the rebound to open Peterborough’s account. 
ECU 2 Peterborough 1 

This goal seemed to invigorate ECU into stepping up their play in the same way that they scored their first two goals.  Luis Gomes went behind the Peterborough goal at speed and as he emerged back onto the main part of the rink he cleverly blocked off his pursuing defender and spun to hit his flick shot past the goalie. 
ECU 3 Peterborough 1  

Another fine ECU move created the necessary space for Max Dunand to wind up and hit a fine slapshot into the net.  
ECU 4 Peterborough 1  

Half Time:- ECU 4 Peterborough 1 

Another penetrating run by Luis Gomes took him behind the Peterborough goal.  Instead off continuing his run around the back of the goal he hit a clever reverse pass into Martin Walker, who was lurking near the near post and his quick snapshot hit the back of Anthony Williams in the Peterborough goal before rolling over the goal line.  
ECU 5 Peterborough 1  

Luis Gomes was clearly enjoying his time back with his English Club Family and he combined with his fellow Portuguese countryman, Pedro Goncalves.  Pedro cleverly took the pass from Luis and flicked the ball up into the air and he finished the move off by placing the ball over the advancing Peterborough keeper. 
ECU 6 Peterborough 1 

ECU were not content on sitting back and enjoying their lead and continued to press for more goals.  This time it was Luis Gomes, again, who went on another run around the back of the Peterborough goal.  He paused for what seemed like an age as time stood still observing what options he had.  He moved forward by flicking the ball in the air to the side of the Peterborough goal and smashed his shot over the Peterborough goalie into the net....a clever goal.  
ECU 7 Peterborough 1 
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Following this seventh ECU goal they switched personnel and gave some of the younger members of the squad some ring time.

Final score –ECU 7 Peterborough 1 
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ECU mixed up their attacking play in this match to great effect.  Sheer physical power where they swept aside their opponents (aided by some lenient refereeing) together with using their superior experience to play some scintillating hockey.  They had two particularly inspired periods of five minutes in each half where they were unplayable and in each of those they fired in three goals to put this match beyond Peterborough.  When Peterborough did manage to break through the ECU defensive stranglehold they found Hattie Ford in fine form in the ECU goal.

From a Peterborough point of view the team were completely outplayed and were well beaten.  Their naivety in defending against their opponents attacking play in and around the back of their own goal is something that, we know, the coach will be addressing in training this coming week.  From this game they should also have learnt the lesson, hopefully, that when you are the last player in defence and in possession of the ball that you should not take on vastly experienced opponents in one on one situations as they are adept at nicking the ball from you and will be straight in on your goal.  This was arguably Peterborough’s worst Premier League performance of the season. 

Top Marks to ECU they can take this powerful, confident performance forward to next Saturday’s game when they play Kings Lynn to decide the outcome of the Premier League Championship.