Unwantables leave the fightback just too late

Isabel Beavers 3, Clubhouse UHC 2

ISABEL BEAVERS proved that they are a force even without Andy Whalley as they beat Clubhouse Unwantables at Foote's Lane on Saturday. The former Guildford forward and current England mixed team captain left these shores during the week to travel in Australia for a couple of months.

Without his pace and sublime skills, Beavers did not look half as dangerous as they took a 3-0 lead, a scoreline that did not fairly reflect how close the game was.

UHC came back late in the second half to score two goals before time ran out on them.

Beavers captain Mark Babbe was satisfied with the result as he contemplates life without Whalley for the time being.

'We'll definitely miss him,' said Babbe.

'I don't think we can replace him. If he had played today, our score would have been in double figures, he is that good.

'The game was all right. We were all right in the first half and in the first half of the second half.

'We then started panicking at the end when they scored two, but I think it was pretty even in fairness: 3-2 was a fair result.'

The match started off scrappily and it stayed that way for the whole of the 70 minutes.

The first chance of the match fell to UHC's Jamie Chambers, who was by far his team's best player all match, as he sweetly struck a shot that went just wide of Jason Robilliard's far post.

The Beavers' keeper then pulled off two fine saves in as many minutes, first with his legs from a Andy Alford shot, who has just returned from travelling, and another from Chambers that was a dive at full stretch to stop the ball with his stick.

Beavers' first meaningful chance came after 20 minutes as striker Dave Morris received a long ball on the edge of the D.

He held it up for a bit, got round keeper Sean Murphy and then took a shot that he screwed so that it was comfortably cleared off the line by defender Huw Sharpe.

A clean strike by the former Rebel Alliance player would have resulted in the first goal of the match.

That first goal did come a couple of minutes later through a short corner to Beavers after a Jon Bell stick tackle that also resulted in the veteran UHC defender receiving a green card. Scot Barry Wallace unleashed a low flick that defeated Murphy by his right post.

Murray was in-between the sticks for regular keeper Paul Bullock, who was on FletcherSports FA Cup duty for the Drunken Duck.

Charlie Allen had a chance to get Beavers a second goal a few minutes later but the Rangers Priaulx player sliced his shot wide.

Half-time came and went with the score the same, something which really did not mirror UHC's dominance.

Ten minutes into the second half they were reduced to 10 men, as winger Phil Ogier was sin- binned for a stick tackle.

Beavers took advantage of that almost immediately as Wallace produced the play of the match: a darting run across the D that culminated in him letting loose a reverse stick shot that flew past Murphy and into the corner of the goal.

Just after an hour of play, the light blues got their third thanks to Alexis Mansell's shot through a crowded D that Murphy could only deflect into his own net. The keeper would have been disappointed with his effort.

With time ticking down, UHC staged a fightback as Newton had the easiest of tap-ins after Chambers did all the work with another penetrating run.

Then, in the last minute, a penalty flick was awarded to the red-and-blacks after Wallace stopped the ball on his own line with his foot.

Newton stepped up and nonchalantly put the ball past Robilliard. The final whistle was blown soon after the restart.

UHC captain Adam Kitching, who watched the game from the sidelines due to a hip injury, felt his team deserved more.

'What can you say? We were definitely the better team during the first half,' he said.

'In the second half we were more free flowing and we just came back too late. Jason produced some saves in the first half that kept them in it.

'I think a draw would have been a fair result but I'm obviously disappointed that we didn't win.'