Forty-one goals! Champions Polytechnic and Welsh Wanderers served up a dazzling display of awesome shooting in a brilliant finale to day one of the men's Super 5s at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, today.
Wanderers won it - 21-20! But it could have gone either way. The first half alone produced 25 goals, Poly edging into a 13-12 lead when, with three seconds remaining of the second period, skipper Kimon Haralambous expertly turned his defender and scored with a powerhouse left-hander into the corner.
Inevitably, perhaps, the intensity of the scoring dipped slightly in the third quarter, but it still saw Poly build a 17-15 lead. Surely the Welsh couldn't rally again? But they did. They levelled at 18-18 - a man-up conversion by Jo Jenkins-Delf - and again at 19-19 thanks to a Dan Laxton strike. At 1.21, Wanderers were ahead at 20-19 - Lewis Gilmour scored - only for Haralambous to equalise yet again with 50 seconds remaining.
Maybe a draw would have been a fair outcome. But a cracking game had more drama to come. Thirty-three seconds remained when Matt Griffiths claimed the Welsh winner, his sixth goal of the day. Jenkins-Delf and Gilmour both finished with four goals; Poly's hotshot was Caleb Simpson - how often would you score eight and finish on the losing team!
Earlier, Wanderers went down 14-12 to Cheltenham, who claimed their first win of the Super 5s campaign. Goals by George Davies (2), Adam Legge and Alistair Bruce in the final period settled a close match. Manchester hammered Sutton & Cheam 19-3, scoring their first 13 goals without a reply from the London team.
Wanderers won it - 21-20! But it could have gone either way. The first half alone produced 25 goals, Poly edging into a 13-12 lead when, with three seconds remaining of the second period, skipper Kimon Haralambous expertly turned his defender and scored with a powerhouse left-hander into the corner.
Inevitably, perhaps, the intensity of the scoring dipped slightly in the third quarter, but it still saw Poly build a 17-15 lead. Surely the Welsh couldn't rally again? But they did. They levelled at 18-18 - a man-up conversion by Jo Jenkins-Delf - and again at 19-19 thanks to a Dan Laxton strike. At 1.21, Wanderers were ahead at 20-19 - Lewis Gilmour scored - only for Haralambous to equalise yet again with 50 seconds remaining.
Maybe a draw would have been a fair outcome. But a cracking game had more drama to come. Thirty-three seconds remained when Matt Griffiths claimed the Welsh winner, his sixth goal of the day. Jenkins-Delf and Gilmour both finished with four goals; Poly's hotshot was Caleb Simpson - how often would you score eight and finish on the losing team!
Earlier, Wanderers went down 14-12 to Cheltenham, who claimed their first win of the Super 5s campaign. Goals by George Davies (2), Adam Legge and Alistair Bruce in the final period settled a close match. Manchester hammered Sutton & Cheam 19-3, scoring their first 13 goals without a reply from the London team.
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