Epsom: 3 (Joubert, Midmer, P.Atkinson)
Bournemouth: 3
Having initially looked the livelier side in this match, Epsom ultimately had to battle back to secure a late 3-3 draw against Bournemouth on Saturday.
Epsom flew forward in the early stages, but were pegged back after 10 minutes when Bournemouth forced their way through down the left to score a well worked goal against the run of play. The momentum then shifted to Bournemouth, who soon made it 2-0 when a cross from the right looped up and was volleyed home expertly by the visitors’ right midfielder. Bournemouth should really have made it three from another attack soon after with Epsom seemingly in disarray, but Jack Miller did just enough to put a forward off from point blank range. This let off shook Epsom into action and some sustained attacking pressure eventually saw the ball coughed up to Wade Joubert at the top of the circle, who fired home a fierce shot to make it 2-1 just on half time.
The second half saw Epsom aiming to continue the fightback, but instead they almost immediately went 3-1 down after a superb solo goal from their right midfielder. Bournemouth subseqeuntly started looking to defend this lead on the counterattack with Epsom allowed to pile on more and more territorial pressure. For a long time it looked like the visitors would hold out but a few visiting players started to rotate in the sin bin and with just 6 minutes to go James Midmer deflected home a short corner to make it 3-2. Almost immediately afterwards, Epsom attacked again and Joubert’s mishit shot was recycled by Midmer into Paul Atkinson lurking at close range to make it 3-3. Both sides seemed to settle for the draw after that, although the result did not do much for either side in the league table. Epsom make a tough trip to Havant 2s on Saturday and will be hoping to improve on some patchy recent form.
FOOTNOTE– The Epsom Men’s Veterans side would like to make an urgent appeal for male hockey players over the age of 45 to play in EHC mens vets. If you are a reader of these reports and fit the criteria, please contact Tim Tennent on 01372 275453 or Tim Collett on 01372 272006