Match Report for Saturday 15th December 2007

Rugeley 1 - 4 OHHC Mens 1st XI

Old Halesonians 1st XI travelled to bottom of the table Rugeley on Saturday, looking to end the first half of their BodyKraft W.Midlands One season with another three points towards their promotion campaign. A frustrating first half saw the scoreline at 0-0, with Hales putting together some good passages of play but unable to break through a stubborn Rugeley defence.

Starting the second half with the aim of gaining more short corners to break down the Rugeley defence, Hales were quickly rewarded with a short corner conversion from Tom Bulteel to finally achieve a breakthrough. Rugeley now started to come forward more, to try to level matters, leaving gaps in their defence for the first time, allowing the Hales forward line space to exert more pressure, which they quickly exploited with a  second goal from Bulteel. The sin-binning of Chris Whylie then temporarily left Hales a man down, allowing the hosts to make a fast break of their own, scoring against the run of play from a goal mouth scramble. Coach Simon Palmer then brought himself back on to perform his now regular role of steadying the ship, and as Rugeley pushed high for an equaliser Chris Hill made a blistering counter-attack to bag Hales' third. As the game fizzled out, another short corner conversion, this time from Doug Houghton allowed Hales to stretch their lead, making sure of three points that were sufficient to secure them second place in the table.

OHHC Mens 2nd XI 2 - 1 Blossomfield (Sat 15th Dec)

OHHC Mens 2nd XI 3 - 1 Walsall (Sun 16th Dec)

Old Hales 2nd XI had a productive weekend, bagging six points in fixtures against on Saturday Blossomfield, and a rearranged game against W.Midlands Premier high-flyers Walsall on Sunday. 0-1 down at half time, after conceding a soft goal early on, Hales rallied in the second half of Saturday's game, dominating the play, and despite the efforts of a solid Blossomfield defence Chris Hardy and Tom Durnford were able to break through to clinch the game.

Sunday's game saw Hales face a Walsall side that has sat at the top of the table for much of the season. An early goal from Marc Hendricx saw Hales take a lead with a reverse stick chop that rocketed into the net, and they managed to hang onto this unexpected lead tenaciously until half time, often  under severe Walsall pressure. However, Hales moved up a gear in the second half, stopping Walsall from playing and pinning them into their own half for much of the remainder of the game.
Hendricx bagged a second goal, with Phil Carter taking one of his own to allow Hales to finish the game with an unexpected but well deserved 3-1 victory.

The Ladies of Old Hales 2nd XI also came off best from an encounter with Walsall over the weekend, converting a 1-0 half time deficit into a 1-2 victory by the final whistle.

Olds Hales 4th XI put in a storming performance to take a 5-2 victory over a Cannock side that has been sweeping all before them in the League, with Chris Woodhouse, Luke Simonds and Stuart Jones all finding the mark.

The youngsters of Old Hales Badgers side put in a fine performance to take a 6-4 victory over visitors Wolverhampton. Matt Henderson bagged a hat trick, whilst Dan Millichap, Amy Ryan and Lauren all made one apiece.