Recap

Last season these two teams campaigns couldn’t have been any more opposite. Team Tom started well and dropped away, while The Veterans looked doomed at one point before rising from the dead in the final few weeks. Skip forward a season and it looks like the opposite could happen again as Team Tom had a nightmare start but have recently picked up, while The Veterans were surprise promotion contenders a few weeks ago but have dropped away.

In the early stages it looked like The Veterans might have been on their way to a much needed victory as Simon Grainger and the returning Andy ‘Egg’ Carrington gave them a two goal lead. Ashley Ellis-Quirke pulled on back on 18 minutes, but a minute later Egg restored the Veterans two goal lead. We were level at the break as Rob Jordan and James MacDonald scored for Team Tom in the final 5 minutes of the half and it was all to play for in the second period.

It was Team Tom who started the second period the stronger, and it was their turn to lead by two when Ellis-Quirke and Jordan both claimed their second goals to make it 5-3. It looked like the game might drift towards a Team Tom win as we entered the last 5 minutes, but Dean Minshull’s goal three minutes from time gave us a potential grandstand finish. Team Tom held on though, and at this rate they could well survive another season in the second tier.