West Hampstead come from behind to stay unbeaten
WEST Hampstead preserved their unbeaten record this season by keeping their nerve to come back from a goal down to win 2-1 at Wycombe.
WH struggled to cope with the hosts’ tactics in the first half, as Wycombe opted to defend deep and hit the league-leaders on the break.
The tactics served to frustrate West Hampstead, whose attacking style of play had been rewarded with 109 league goals ahead of Saturday’s game.
But the home side’s methods appeared to have paid off when they opened the scoring midway through the first half, and maintained the lead at the break.
Player-coach Jack Beard used the half-time period to calm his players down and the pep talk paid off early in the second half when Dave Leech equalised.
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That goal settled nerves and Rogier de Roy (pictured), the league’s top goalscorer, secured victory when he blasted the ball into the next on 55 minutes.
“We had created a lot of chances prior to that [Wycombe goal] but it wasn’t the usual fluid hockey that we were used to playing and frustration came in quickly,” Beard said. “Even I got caught up by the frustration of it all.”
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“At half time it was a case of calming everyone down and saying that goals will come. We used the 5-10 minutes at half time to compose ourselves.
“The game was more of the same in the second half and they retreated even further back. They were playing damage limitation to try to get away with the 1-0.
WH welcome Maidenhead on Saturday.
