Second half comeback gives men's team another win despite sending off
Despite going 7-3 down at the start of the third quarter, the men's team rallied and found their mojo to soundly beat Lincoln 16-10 in a day full of incidents.
Four goals by Nathan Villiers and hat-tricks by James Anderson, Shane Hall and Adrein Reinert helped Staffordshire collect their sixth win of the season to close the gap on leaders Nottingham Trent to just three points. But Hall saw the red mist and was sent off with ten minutes remaining to make it a nervy finish.
Despite the win, it took the second half before Staffs took the lead after surprisingly going down by four goals. "I was horrified by the start that Staffs started at Lincoln, but after the first half we started to play our own game and take the game to Lincoln instead of them bringing it to us."
Before even starting their two hour journey across the country, Staffs found out that they were having to go with only 12 players as there was a clash of lectures for the other half of the squad. So stamina was going to be a big key to getting the win today. "Having only two subs was hard work today, but we managed to pull through it, regards of us only going down to having one sub after Shane being sent off" says captain Dimitri Chambers.
The first quarter saw the visitors quickly take a 2-0 lead in the first minute. That seemed to get Staffs thinking this could be a walkover. But the hosts thought otherwise and stuck to their game, and they were rewarded with a lead, and they just kept increasing it. This frustrated captain Chambers and he knew a timeout or two was needed to give his players a talking to. But it was still the same in the second quarter and Lincoln's goal count was increasing more and more. This seemed to rattle Staffs and numerous fouls were being called that resulted in Lincoln being given a one-man advantage for a lot of the second quarter. Despite that, the visitors were still able to get some goals that included a first ever goal by midfielder Adrian Reinert, whose speed was just too much for Lincoln's back line and the Frenchman ended it with a low drive past the keeper. As the half time whistle went Staffs now knew that they have to do what they have not done all season, and that was come from behind.
But it seemed the half-time break was what they needed to get back to playing their own game. The flow from defence to attack was back to its best and the passing around the Lincoln goal was much better, and it ended with a batch of goals. The addition of Marcus Howe in defence gave Lincoln something new to worry about, but they could not handle his presence when the hosts were attacking and his pace when making a few runs up the field. In terms of scoring, it was being lead by Villiers who was back in scoring form and managed to collect a quick succession of goals to bring Staffs back into the game. Villiers was also being play-maker and gifted a couple to Chambers and Thomas Chandler who collected his second goal of the season as his shot was too quick for Lincoln's keeper to react to. The third quarter also saw Hall and Anderson complete their well deserved hat-tricks to give Staffs the lead and it seemed everything was coming back to Staffs.
Going into the final quarter, Staffs had the comfortable lead but it was one they knew Lincoln can bring back very quickly. Thankfully, the visitors kept scoring enough goals to keep that comfortable which included Reinert complete his perfect performance with a hat-trick to continue Staffs' depth of scorers. Reinert's hat-trick and all-round performance was a lot of the players highlight of the day. Chambers commented "It is great to see new players scoring and showing the determination that they want to be part of the big Varsity game at the end of the season."
But with ten minutes to go Lincoln were given hope of getting something out of today as the visitors received a fine-minute penalty and a sending off for Hall for numerous slashing calls and constant arguing with the officials. The game looked as if it would turn on its head. But Staffs' defensive line held their ground to collect a vital away win to keep their 100% road record.
Next up for Staffs will be Oxford Brookes at home. With East Anglia being rearranged, this will give captain Chambers a lot of time to concentrate on what needs improving before their next match. Before their next match we should also find out the 18-man Varsity squad, which is now just six weeks away.