Lincoln Men’s Hockey progressed to the next round of the cup after a comfortable 6-0 win over Nottingham Trent.
They started as they meant to go on when a pass from Lincoln cut the Nottingham Trent defence open for Daniel Schneider who put the ball past the goalkeeper and into the far corner.
It wasn’t long until Lincoln got a second. A low ball was put in from the left and Steve Hill was able to control it and round the goalkeeper before striking the ball home.
The game would quieten down for the rest of the half apart from a few Lincoln chance. however the stars were at the back for Lincoln who didn’t give Nottingham Trent a sniff. The visitors barely got into the Lincoln half, never mind have a shot on goal.
Lincoln did close to claiming a third before the half ended when the ball was played into the penalty circle and Peter Lamb got a good touch on it, but the NTU keeper was not prepared to concede another and made a great save.
After a slow start to the second half, Lincoln got back to their scoring ways. Lincoln got their third penalty corner of the day and after the initial shot was saved, Hill poked it in to get number three for the home side.
Almost instantly Lincoln sealed their win with a fourth. Once again they had a penalty corner and straight from it Peter Lamb struck the ball as sweet as you like and the goalkeeper had no chance of saving it.
However Lincoln weren’t done yet. After picking up the ball just inside the Nottingham Trent half, team captain Tom Pinder snaked his way through the NTU defence and then calmly struck the ball past the keeper.
To their credit, Nottingham Trent did attack more in the second half and even got some penalty corners, though Lincoln were able to defend them. At one point NTU went one on one with keeper Freddy Kemsley, but Kemsley pulled off a great save to keep his clean sheet.
The game was sealed when on the edge of the penalty circle Tom Pinder struck a great shot and it easily went past the Nottingham Trent keeper.
Lincoln were rarely tested in this game and were able to cut open the Nottingham Trent defence on a number of occasions which led to their biggest win of the season, and their passage to the Last Sixteen of the Midlands Conference Cup. They will play either Oxford 2nds or Leicester 3rds in the next round.
Men’s Hockey Captain Tom Pinder:
“I don’t what it is about the cup but we seem to play really nice hockey”
“As far as the team is concerned we play good stuff in the middle.”
“No individual stood out too much it was just a team effort.”
“I definitely think we can go all the way. I think the boys just get up for the cup a lot more.”