Season off to a good start with away win

Whitley Bay and Tynemouth HC men's 1st XI got the season off to a good start with a solid away win over Cheshire side Alderley Edge HC. In a fairly one sided affair, where WBTHC kept Alderley Edge to two attempts at goal, WBTHC dominated the entire match from start to finish and if only for some better finishing should have put the match well out of sight earlier on.

WBTHC started brightly in the match, penning Alderley Edge into their own half and after a few chances when missing they made the breakthrough from a goal by Chris Traynor. The goal came from a well worked long corner, from which Ralph Heppell crashed the ball into the "D" and Traynor deflected it high into the Alderley Edge goal.
WBTHC kept knocking on the Alderley Edge goal's door but couldn't capitalise. However a counter attack was produced off a loose WBTHC pass, which in turn led to a defensive error trying to intercept the counter attack and soon the scores were level.
Fortunately this did not change the coarse of the match and WBTHC picked up were they left off back on the attack. 10min before half time WBTHC were ahead again with a great passing move involving Steven Hill, Andrew Titmus and goal scorer James Talbot. Alderley held out until half time as WBTHC couldn't find the 2 goal cushion they desired.
The second half was a similar affair with WBTHC having the majority of the play and Alderley unable to mount a meaningful attack. The only negative for the day was WBTHC's in ability to score more goals with all the attacks they had, only scoring a third with 10min to go in the game.
This time the goal scorer was Phil Ithurralde, and this time it was WBTHC who were applying the counter attack. Quick thinking by Alex Lockey after Alderley lost possession over the WBTHC base-line allowed him to play a long ball all the way down the side-line and into the Alderley 25yard area, where Titmus collected the pass. He passed the ball around the only remaining Alderley defender and Ithurralde flicked the ball into the corner of the net past the onrushing keeper.

WBTHC play their first home game of the season next Saturday against City of York HC and they will be hoping to make it two wins out of two.