Mens 4s Hammer Hamble

Portsmouth Mens 4s made it two away wins from two after a dominant 8-1 win over Hamble 3.

Looking to build on the positives from last weekend’s defeat, Portsmouth started the match well and took the lead after 10 minutes. A short corner strike from Bryan Hodges was deflected in at the post by Alan Duffy. However, it didn’t take long for Hamble to equalise. Portsmouth were caught napping after the restart and the home side immediately worked their way up the pitch and made it 1-1.

Portsmouth collected themselves and managed to re-establish their lead midway through the first half. A well worked move saw Alan Duffy find Lucas Carkeek-Blakley in the D who calmly slotted past the Hamble keeper to make it 2-1.

Hamble once again looked to equalise and had several chances, but Portsmouth were able to give themselves a two goal cushion shortly before half-time. A quick 16 found Tom Hughes in space on the left wing who picked out Bryan Hodges in plenty of space. Hodges, electing to go it alone, drove into the top of the D and fired an absolute rocket into the roof of the net (much to the disbelief of his teammates) to give Portsmouth a 3-1 lead going into the break. (Bryan would later reassure the team that this was not a fluke as he had once scored a similar goal in the 1980s).

The visitors kicked it up a gear in the second-half. Alan Duffy “scored” his second of the match with a cross in the D that was turned into the goal by an opposition defender (which Alan was unsurprisingly quick to claim as his goal).

Bryan Hodges and Lucas Carkeek-Blakley also added to their tally to make it 6-1 before captain Tom Hughes got in on the action. A hit towards the back post from Bryan Hodges was stopped by Hughes, who, with his back to goal, was able to calmly reverse flick the ball over the falling goalkeeper to make it 7-1. Alistair Thompson completed the scoring for Portsmouth with a short corner strike into the bottom left corner.

Final score: Hamble 1-8 Portsmouth
MoM: Bryan Hodges – for his two goals and three assists.
DoD: Alan Duffy – for being determined not to score a hat-trick.