Scorers:- John Thompson,Colin

Reivers traveled to Birmingham to play Barford Tigers aptly named as they were just as ferocious as that wild beast.  It was a telling indictment when the neutral umpires spoke to Eric and I just before the start and said” We will protect you as much as we can”  I think they tried and I dread to think what would have happened had they been weak umpires.To be fair to Barford they were decent hockey players who really did not need that element to their game.

Reivers started the game well taking the mach to their hosts and went a goal up after about 15 minutes from a super strike by Jonathan Thompson at a short corner routine.  We held on until the last 10 minutes of the first half when Barford against the run of play somehow scrambled the ball into the net.  1-1 at the break.

The second half was to say the least testing Barford scored again to take the lead and then used tactics that Attilla the Hun would have been proud of to hold that lead.  At this point several Green cards were produced none of them to Reivers players and it is dissapointing that cards of a different colour were not produced.

Barford increased their lead to 3-1 but Reivers dug in and some tactical positional changes saw a sustained period of pressure from the team resulting several short corners, from one of these Barford keeper saved an Evans goal bound flick from ripping the top corner of the net.

Not to be denied though Reivers fought on, and from one of the, by now, frequent shorts Colin hammered the ball home.  3 -2, Ten minutes to go and the pressure was all on the home side as Reivers sought the life saving equalizer.  It is significant that during this period Barford players were urging the umpire to blow for time, showing how nervous they were of being pegged back.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and we will have to wait till next year.

Thanks to all those who made the trip and fought so gamely against a bunch of Tigers.

Scorers:- Tim Van Zwann, E.Matters, John Thompson, A.Evans(2).

Reivers march on once again to the quarter finals of the Vintage Cup after a satisfying victory  5-3 over Bournville.The opening 10 minutes both sides were evenly matched with both making probing attacks without much success until Reivers benefited from a mazy run by Jon Thompson to the top right of Bournville circle when he squared to TVZ who hammered the ball high into the goal.
This stirred the visitors and Reivers were under increased pressure as Bournville pressed for the equaliser.  They managed the feat with just about 5 minutes of the first period remaining and it has to be said that they were worthy of this as they had been the better side for 80% of the half.

Honours even then at the start of the second but Reivers soon changed that when Eric (Chef) Matters followed up a shot from TVZ which was saved by the keeper but Eric’s shot was unstoppable.  2-1 Reivers.  Reivers were now starting to play proper hockey I.E Passing the ball to their own players rather than the opposition, during this purple period John Thompson netted the third when TVZ rampaging down the left returned the earlier favour by squaring the ball for John to Tickle it into an open goal.  John Thomson was involved in the fourth goal when he found Alan Evans free in the circle with an exquisite through ball.  Evans didn’t even stop the ball but just drilled into the bottom corner 4 – 1 Reivers

To their credit Bournville did not give up and reduced the deficit with  a well struck shot from a short corner.  4 – 2 with 12 minutes still to play.  Twitchy bum time!  However this tension was eased when Evans netted the 5th when a shot rebounded off the keeper straight to his stick three metres out and he calmly scooped the ball home.  5 – 2 and looking safe but Bournville were not done yet and got their 3rd goal again from a short corner.

In a game where no one really played to their potential this was a workman like performance and all 15 players deserve congratulations for their efforts.

Next round on 13 Feb away to either Woucester or Barford Tigers

Selected other games are:-

Canterbury v Colchester

Hereford v Winchester

New Beccehamian v Olton & West Warwicks

Reivers now on tune and attacking with increasing frequency putting the Lakelanders defence under all kinds of pressure resuting in several short corners.  from one of these Evans netted Reivers second goal TVZ injected to Crute who slipped the ball right to Matters who, after drawing the defence squared the ball to Evans to tap in.  The third goal game from another short corner but this time route one TVZ inject to Itherralde who took one touch before hammering the ball into the corner of the Lakelanders goal.  3-0 at the interval

The half time oranges supplied by TVZ obviously had some effect because Reivers came out in the second period in the sam indomidable form  not allowing their visitors any time or space on the ball and jumping upon every little mistake to regain possession.  It was only a matter of time before Reivers added to their score and this came when Matters attacked from the right of the circle and had a goalbound shot deflected but unfortunalely for Lakelanders it was deflected directly into the path of Evans who made no mistake and slotted the ball home.  Reivers were totally dominating the game now but credit to Lakelanders they never gave up and continued to try to play the passing game but Reivers were just too strong and eventually Matters got his reward for a fine game with a poachers goal from 6 inches.

All in all a fine performance and credit to our new skipper Micky Christopher who had the courage to stick with the attacking 4 3 3 formation.  Jim Gardner had the game of his Reivers Career in the opinion of this corespondent and deserved his man of the match nomination.  Unfortunately the vote went against him and Evans was voted man of the match by the committee.

Morpeth Reivers first goal came when Evans dispossessed the last defender to get into the circle and lash a shot into the bottom corner.  This was within the first 6 minutes or so and this served to settle the side and the second goal was just a matter of time.

This came from a short corner when the ball was returned to Crute on the penalty spot and as he pushed the ball goal wards it bounced off just about every player in the circle before trickling over the line.  They all count though and Reivers were now in total control of the game and played some delightful hockey.

The third came before the interval from Reivers Youngster John Thompson.  He received from a short corner and Hammered a shot low into the right corner.

At the interval Skipper Christopher was demanding more effort to kill the game off early in the second half.  This stirring team talk worked wonders and for the first 10 minutes of the second half Reivers were just short of Rubbish giving the ball away in our own 25 and gifting several short corners to Wakefield.

Luckily though we held firm and did not concede during this poor period and eventually got back on track with Crute Thompson & Christopher controlling the midfield. Itherralde, Mackellar Gardner. James and Laidlow firm in defence, Barber TVZ  Fielding and Matters in attack.  Mike Warren on the bench with a dodgy Knee led the cheerleaders.

Reivers 4th eventually came courtesy of Thompson when he scooped a ball high into the net to round off the scoring.

In a game where all played well it was good to see that team spirit is still high enough to get 15 players to make the journey.

Be sure to keep checking this page for any announcements that may concern upcoming games.

Match Reports will also be posted here in the future, below is an example.

Score:- 4- 0

Morpeth Reivers began their 2009 Vintage campaign with a home tie against Keswick & Witehaven.  Reivers fielding a strong side were confident from the start and totally dominated the opening stages mounting attack after attack on the Keswick goal and it was no surprise when Tim Van Zwannenberg latched onto an Eric Matters pass to score the opening Goal.

This early score settled any lingering nerves and Reivers played some excellent flowing hockey making the opposition chase the ball.  The second and richly deserved second goal came with ten miutes of the half remaining.

In the second period Reivers started where they had left off and got the third and killer goal within 7 minutes of the start.  This cushion allowed manager John Dobison to make full use of the three substitutes available and this to some extent affected the rythm of the side and Keswick got a bit more into the game with Reivers Keeper Paul Finch  having to actually keep goal.  However even though Reivers were stuttering they were still too strong for a tiring Keswick and the goal of the game involving 4 Reivers players sealed the match at 4-0

Next round for Reivers is Sunday 1 November 2009 The Draw for that round is expected within 24/48 hours.