Grove Menzieshill in good European position
Grove Menzieshill are in a good position to reach the promotion pool the of EuroHockey Indoor Club Trophy following a 7-3 win over HC Minsk today.
Although the Taysiders lost their second match to East Grinstead, if they better HC Minsk’s result in tomorrow’s final pool B match, they will advance to the top four pool. Chris Anderson’s side will be up against AD Lousada, who lost their matches 7-2 and 6-2 in Pool B.
Earlier in the day, the Dundonians got off to a flyer, defeating HC Minsk 7-3 in their first match.
After a goalless first half, Chris Wilson opened the scoring shortly after half-time before Ross McPherson doubled the lead to give Chris Anderson’s side a two goal cushion early in the second half proceedings.
However, HC Minsk pulled one back through Aliaksandr Hancharou before Michael Ross got his first goal of the game to restore the two goal advantage.
Again Minsk came back into the contest with a goal to make it 3-2 before Grove Menzieshill’s class began to tell; Sam Tilston notched a quick-fire double to make it 5-2, before Ross grabbed his second of the match and a Gavin Byers strike rounded off an impressive team display to put his side well out of sight at 7-2.
The Belarussians recorded their third goal of the game from a penalty corner resulting in a 7-3 final scoreline.
Anderson’s side then faced East Grinstead in their second pool B match.
Great Britain and England international Ashley Jackson opened the scoring for East Grinstead in the third minute before Michael Ross equalised for the Taysiders in the 11th minute.
Two minutes later, Grove Menzieshill were in front as Craig Falconer scored off Ross McPherson’s pass and were 3-1 up in the 15th minute courtesy of a spectacular strike from Chris Wilson.
In an intense end-to-end three minute spell, Olympian Richard Smith pulled one back for the English champions to make it 3-2 in the 17th minute before goals from McPherson (18’) and Ross Stott (19’) gave the Scots a 5-2 lead at half-time.
However, East Grinstead started the second half strongly with a third goal in the 21st minute and Jackson grabbed his second and the team’s fourth goal from a penalty corner five minutes later to make it 5-4.
Jackson continued to be East Grinstead’s play-maker and his pass to find Glenn Kirkham resulted in an equaliser, pitching the sides at 5-5 for the closing stages.
As the game approached full-time, agony for Chris Anderson’s side as Mark Pearn had the easy task of finding an empty net in the 34th minute to complete a great comeback and take the lead at 6-5.
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