Keswick men’s 2nd team lost 3-1 at home to Clitheroe Blackburn Northern 1sts but it was a good indication of how far this team has come.
A look at the fixture list reveals that they are now playing a lot of club’s first teams, which can only be good for their own development.
The first chance of the game went to Clitheroe after only a couple of minutes of play when Bob Cackle just failed to get his shot on target after a good run saw him end up in the D.
Keswick’s first real possession had them playing some good passing hockey. Accurate passing between the first defenders, then onto the midfield saw them mount a couple of attacks before Paul Sloan wrong-footed the two Clitheroe central defenders after a good pass from Peter Sutton and drew a penalty corner.
From the corner, the ball found Peter Sutton on the edge of the D and he fired it past the keeper and two defenders on the line to give the home side the lead.
Unfortunately, as the half went on it was the visitors who were playing to a more structured game plan, keeping their shape well and not panicking despite being a goal down.
Keswick held them at bay until the 18th minute when Lewis McCabe pulled things level from ten yards with a shot that found the right side of the net.
The hosts should have been ahead again after 30 minutes when only some quick stick work from one of the Clitheroe defenders turned the ball away after a shot from a penalty corner.
There was an appeal from Keswick for a penalty flick, as the defender had turned the ball behind the goals deliberately, but their appeal fell on deaf ears.
Clitheroe might have been fortunate to survive this appeal, but they didn’t dwell on it – as they went downfield and took the lead almost immediately, with Chris Rowell finding the net.
The second half saw both teams confident they could get all the points, and the game got a bit fractious as both sides battled hard to get the edge over the other.
Ricky Barnes and Matty Burridge put the visitor’s defence under tremendous pressure, and Jack Chippendale’s runs at the defence created big holes for them to try to capitalise on. However, it was the visitors who scored their third after ten minutes of the half through Jack Caton.
Try as they might Keswick were unable to breach the Clitheroe defence, the visitors’ keeper making several good stops to deny Keswick, and they still trailed at the finish.
