Ross-on-Wye Men’s 1st had a hard task asked of them last weekend, they had to play two games – one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

The first game was against Cleevillians who were sitting just above them in the league. The match began at a high tempo with Ross passing the ball around in a manner drawing comparisons with Barcelona FC. Pivotal to this was the midfield fulcrum of Ash Williams, Euan Aitken, Tom Walton and Kristian Franklin.

Ross started with a real intensity and it was no surprise that the first goal came very early in the half. It was scored by Ross’s current top scorer Jonny Cross, as was the second goal and third in the space of the first 8 minutes. A hat trick alone is a great achievement, but one in the first 8 minutes of a game is very rare. It must be said that although all Jonny’s goals where mere ‘tap ins’ the main work came from the passing work between the defence and midfield. The first half ended 4-1 to Ross.

In the second half Cleevillians launched a come back and managed to slot in a few goals to take the score to 4-3 – this was partly due to the goal keeper Laurence Raasch whose compression pants where obviously not tight enough to get him to close the gap in-between his legs and getting nutmegged twice. The game then went back and forth for the next 30 mins but some very solid striking by Jonny Cross (another tap in), Euan Aitken (who managed to get 2 goals), Tom Walton (who scored from a Penalty Corner) and a lucky goal for Kristian Franklin meant that Ross held on to win the game 8-6.

Ross then travelled to Cheltenham on the Sunday with tired legs and a few small injuries to face a very young looking Cheltenham C. Again the game started with a good tempo with Ross playing the ball around the back so well that National League hockey players would get excited at the look of it. Ross’s first goal came from the oldest member of the team, Andrew Ridgeway, with a cracking deflection in the D to put the ball well past the Cheltenham keeper. Then came the onslaught with every Ross player thinking they were the slightly older, hairier, less talented Cristiano Ronaldo. Ross managed to pop in a few more goals in the first and second half from Euan Aitken, Jonny Cross, Kristian Franklin and a great goal from the youngest player, Theo.

The first game on Saturday was starting to take effect on the Ross team’s fitness and with only two defenders playing (as the rest were playing as strikers in the opponents’ D) Ross let in a couple of consolation goals. The score ended 2-5 to Ross and with that win – it takes Ross to the top of the League for the first time.