Event: Bristol & West Water Polo Division 1
Venue: Pitville Pool, Cheltenham
Date: 29th April 2010
Swindon Dolphin’s bad luck continued in their latest Bristol & West league match as current division one champions Cheltenham ran out winners by one goal.
Swindon travelled with a much stronger team of players than won at Frome the previous week and were confident of pulling off a surprise victory by playing the same game plan.
Cheltenham led for most of the fixture although Swindon ensured that it was always a slender one. The first period finished with Cheltenham in front by one goal; the score being four goals to three. Swindon showed their mental toughness in the second period ensuring that the period was drawn two goals each. As in the past, the third period proved to be Swindon’s Achilles heel; Cheltenham applied the pressure and drew a number of man-up situations. Cheltenham punished Swindon for this and ended up winning the period by two goals. Swindon were determined to go down fighting and came out in the last period with all guns blazing. Unfortunately the team just ran out of time and despite winning the quarter by two they could not find the goal needed to force a draw.
Goals were spread throughout the team as always. Contributions came from Matt James (5), Michal Trzeciak and Andy Hick (3) as well as single strikes from Chris Selby and Ian Brewer.
Returning Coach David Quinlivan said after the match “We started the match really well and controlled the way we played. Our ultimate downfall in the end was our ability not to take guilt edged chances. All players were as guilty as one another for this. Let’s hope we can start taking these and turning our one goal defeats into victories.”
Result: Cheltenham II 14 – 13 Swindon Dolphin
Team: Andy Watts, David Quinlivan (1 major), Chris Selby (1 goal, 1 major), Andy Hicks (3 goals), Tim Newcombe, Will Smith (1 major), Ian Brewer (1 goal, 1 major), Matt James (5 goals, 2 majors), Mark Lawlor (1 major), Michal Trzeciak (3 goals, 2 majors).
