Altona made a gritty comeback against Greensborough on Saturday.
ALTONA’S State League One men’s hockey side recovered from a horror start to record a thrilling draw against Greensborough at Grant Reserve on Saturday.
On a big day for the Altona Hockey Club, where they inducted a group of members into their Hall of Fame, the young side were keen to record a win in front of a big crowd.
Greensborough loomed as a formidable opponent, after knocking off Camberwell last week, and fielding a line-up chock full of state representatives.
The match began in a frenetic fashion. Greensborough were attacking quickly, and looking very dangerous. While goal keeper Ben Oborn was playing some fantastic hockey, making quite a number of saves, the wave after wave of attack was too much to stop, and Greensborough scored three quick goals in the first 15 minutes of the match.
Altona was shell-shocked, but regrouped and started to control the game.
Missing Co-captain Matthew Guest, who was away with Canadian International duties, Mitchell Gough was picked for his debut match and was instantly looking dangerous up front as striker.
The quick Patrick Phillips was causing the Greensborough defence some headaches, and the distribution of veteran centre-halves Tyson Priddle and Jamie Benson was giving him ample opportunity to attack. Just before half time, Phillips pounced on a rebound from the Greensborough goal keeper, and slotted a back stick tomahawk into the top left corner of the net.
Altona came out after the break much more settled and played to their structure. Jesse Gatt, who has had a stellar season and recently represented Victoria at the Under 21 national championships, was controlling the midfield. Gatt made an intercept, got the ball to veteran defender Mathew Higgins, who transferred the ball through Priddle in the midfield, back to Gatt, who slotted the ball calmly past the Greensborough goal keeper to make the score 2-3.
Chris Coleman, the string bean defender, was sending Altona into attack with toss after toss, and Gatt and Phillips were dominating up front. The match became extremely tense, and tempers flared.
Altona stayed focused, and with five minutes left in the match scored a penalty corner. Coleman, the club’s leading goal scorer sent a searing drag flick into the back of the net to level the scores.
“Salvaging a draw was important as the race to the finals is extraordinarily tight, but we can’t give quality sides like them a three goal start. The boys will be working hard next week against Hawthorn to get off to a flyer.” co-coach Ben Guy said.
Altona take on Hawthorn away on Saturday this week.
