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Mitcham were without Dean Woods, Ben King and Kathryn Ayres, meaning Coach Dave Synott was again forced to play, while Bec, who have one of the largest squads in the HSKL, were able to keep their opponents guessing with some minor changes to their starting line up; Stuart Ironmonger continuing his come back from injury, and Welsh international Ruth Campbell were given a starting place. Synott lined up against Dinos Tritsarolis, while young Carina Lamalas was tasked with keeping the current England and former Mitcham player Karen Sparrow out of the game. At the other end the close match up between experienced internationals Ross Bower and Davesh Patel meant neither was going to find it easy to play the role of main attacker, while Ironmonger lined up against Craig Gosling, in what proved to be a key pairing in determining the flow of goals.
Bec were pressing hard in defence and while this stifled the Mitcham attack, it inevitably led to contact fouls which led to free passes and penalties. Mitcham opened the scoring with a Helen West free pass, but Bec responded with Tristarolis shooting from the feed; this set the pattern for the rest of the game. Mitcham's attack of Bower, Gosling, West and Tamara Burnell were struggling to find their rhythm, while Bec's attack of Sparrow, Tritsarolis, Jeroen Suijker and Campbell were moving the ball relatively freely, but failing to score; the height of Synott and John Taylor meant Bec were not able to recycle the ball easily.
With both teams struggling to create good scoring opportunities the game became increasingly physical, with both teams becoming more focussed on the passion of the game rather than their technical or tactical skills. Bec narrowly led for most of the first half, but Gosling scoring a couple of late goals over Ironmonger's head right from under the post meant the half ended level at 5-5. Low scoring, but with everything still to play for.
After half time, Bec came out with more focus in attack, and began to drive hard through Ironmonger and Patel. Gosling was tasked with closer defence of the outside shooting of Ironmonger, gambling on driving Patel to the post and leaving Ironmonger under pressure to perform out the front after several months out injured. Ironmonger rose to the occasion, however, and Gosling was repeatedly beaten for pace, while Ironmonger was able to offload to Patel, who was finishing clinically. However, Mitcham were keeping themselves in the game with a succession of penalties and free passes, and the scores remained close, never more than one goal apart.
Mid-way through the second half, both teams made female substitutions, Mitcham bringing on the experienced Sam Wells for Burnell and Bec giving Jana Herglova her farewell to English korfball in place of Campbell. Wells soon had an impact in scoring for Mitcham but the goal was immediately neutralised by former team-mate Sparrow finding the basket from distance. In truth the only female player to exert any real authority on the game was Sparrow, who showed her big match credentials in the second half with three fine goals and some audacious blams and interceptions.
The teams continued to trade goals; Captain Patel scored his fourth drop off after Ironmonger's fearless attacking only to be matched by a half-way line effort from Synott. As the game was reaching its climax, Bland rounded Wells for a runner, but West immediately replied with an identical goal at the other end. As the minutes ticked down, the teams were again deadlocked at 12-12. The male players at both ends started dropping to steal rebounds and dive for interceptions, leading to a succession of collisions and keeping referee Bobby Allen busy as he repeatedly pointed to the spot. Bec won a crucial penalty as Taylor appeared to foul as he attempted a rebounding steal, but Tritsarolis failed to convert.
It looked as though the game was headed for a draw but there was still plenty more drama left in this match, with a nasty injury leading to Wells having to be carried off the pitch in the 59th minute, to be replaced by young Jess McNiven (who for the second time this season found herself brought on in the final minute of a big game with the scores level). With less than 10 seconds remaining, Mitcham launched a speculative last shot and in the referee's opinion, Patel knocked the ball from Gosling's hands in the rebound and to almost everyone's astonishment, Mitcham were awarded a penalty. League top scorer Bower slotted home the penalty just seconds before the final whistle blew and Mitcham stole the two points from under Bec's nose.
Mitcham will feel lucky to have had their good fortune at the whistle but have to look to smarter ball movement and better one on one defence, while Bec will be rueing missing two penalties and lack of flowing attack that cost them the game.
Match Report courtesy of englandkorfball.co.uk. A full round up of week 10 of the Haven Sports Korfball League is available here.
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