Swindon Flames Match Reports 24/02/08

JUNIOR FLAMES 2 v OXFORD HURRICANES 4

The Southern Area Skater Hockey (SASH) league opened on Sunday with Swindon’s Junior Flames (U-18’s) facing off against local rivals, Oxford Hurricanes at the Farnborough Leisure Centre in the first league match of the 2008 season. As with other recent fixtures between the two teams the game was a closely contested and hard fought affair with Oxford taking the lead in the 10^th minute only to be pegged back by a goal from Flames forward Craig Davies less than a minute later and despite taking several minor penalties against them the Flames managed to reach the half time whistle with the scores level at one all.

The second period began at a frenetic pace with the Oxford forwards storming the Flames’ goals and within the first minute the Flames again found themselves one goal behind. As in the first half, another rash of minor penalties against the Flames gave Oxford the advantage and they capitalised by scoring their third goal midway through the second period. The Flames regrouped to mount a comeback and within a minute of conceding found the net through forward Tom Ireland to bring themselves back in contention with the score at 3-2. With only 5 minutes of the game remaining, and with the Flames committing players forward in an effort to equalise, The Oxford team managed to break out of their own half and effectively end the game by scoring their fourth and final goal of the game to run out 4-2 winners.

James Cosgrove, Junior Flames coach said after the game “ The first game of the season is always difficult and playing against Oxford is always difficult, to have to do both on the first day of the new season was therefore doubly difficult but despite the result I am very happy with the determination shown by the team and although we lost today and there are plenty of things we need to work on I would like to think that we can only improve as the season progresses.

YOUTH FLAMES 16 v ASH AVALANCHE THUNDER 0

The first day of SASH fixtures also saw the Flames Youth team (U-15’s) in action as they steam-rollered their way to a 16 - 0 victory over Ash Avalanche Thunder. In a one-sided match The Flames took the lead almost immediately and with hat tricks from both Jamie Morgan and Jack Townsend, plus goals from Terry Silvester and Kyle Coupe, the Flames ended the first period eight goals up.

The second period followed much the same pattern with Jack Townsend adding another to his tally, Kyle Coupe completing a hat trick and Oliver Thompson scoring twice. Goals from Connor MacKenzie, Alex Baker and John Spence completed the rout.

After the game Derek Thompson, Flames Youth Manager, said “ A win as emphatic as this is a great way to start our season and should give us a great platform for our 2008 campaign, however it’s a long season and now we’ve set the bar we need to push ourselves to maintain this standard. The whole team played really well today and following today’s result we’re looking forward to our next game”.

SENIOR FLAMES 15 v BANBURY BULLDOGS 2

Also opening their season on Sunday, Swindon’s newly formed Flames Senior team made their league debut against Banbury Bulldogs.

The Senior Flames made a statement of intent within 60 seconds of their first league appearance when they took an early lead through forward Dean Morgan. Four minutes later Morgan again found the back of the net which opened the floodgates to the Flames attack with goals coming from Mark Lane, Craig Davies and two from Luke Swaby before Morgan completed his hat-trick to take the Flames to the halftime break 7 goals up.

The second period started with The Bulldogs under pressure from the very first whistle, which resulted in an own goal in the opening ten seconds. Again the Flames were rampant from the restart and forty seconds later were 9 nil up when Flames forward, Jim Grey converted to lead the Flames on another goal spree. Second period goals from Craig Davies, Dave Morton, Mark Lane and Simon Smith and the completion of a hat-trick for Jim Grey saw the Flames, despite conceding two late consolation goals, romp to the final whistle as comfortable 15-2 winners.

Speaking after the match, Nigel Davies, Senior Flames manager said “ This is a great start for our Senior team and a landmark for the whole club, as we are now fielding teams in all age groups and today’s score line only tells half the story, even more impressive was the way in which the guys played together as a team and the spirit in which the game was played. The team’s performance today was a credit to themselves and the club and bodes really well for the future of Swindon Flames Seniors”. 

PEEWEE FLAMES 1 v FARNBOROUGH ARROWS 16

The Flames Peewee team (U-12’s) kicked off their season with the final game of the day facing off against league newcomers Farnborough Arrows. Due to injury and unavailability the Peewee team could only field one line of players which was always going to make this a difficult game and it soon became apparent that even at full strength the Peewee Flames would have had their hands full competing with the Farnborough Arrow, who as league debutants were somewhat of an unknown quantity. From the first face off the Arrows took the game to the depleted Flames and by the end of the first period had racked up 8 unanswered goals.

The second half saw the Arrows turn the screw even further and despite a brave effort by the determined Flames, including a second period strike by team Captain, Sam Nobbs, the Farnborough side powered their way to a comfortable 16-1 win.