Round 6 - Richmond

The Box Hill Under East B team travelled to play Richmond at Yarra Bend on a cold, foggy morning. The team were pumped as Richmond’s results put them a point behind the team but with a game in hand so it was a must win game. The pitch was very small though a good surface.

The team started brightly attacking down both flanks with Gabriel & Jesse combining well down the left & Curtis and Devon doing likewise down the right. The central midfield pairing of Declan & Brendan was ticking along nicely as usual. The first shot on target by Box Hill hit the inside of the post and rolled along the length of the goal line & unfortunately Curtis couldn’t get onto it to slot it home? Would this come back to haunt the boys? Unfortunately we didn’t have to wait long to find out as a Richmond foray down our right flank resulted in a cross into the box which Richmond slotted away. Tim in goals could do nothing about it. Richmond 1-0 Box Hill. To the boy’s credit they hit back in true Box Hill style by moving the ball around & passing to feet and this resulted in Devon scoring the equaliser. 1-1. The defence of Matt, Josh, Blain & Jonty defended well & allowed the & this gave the Box Hill team a solid platform on which to build. The team continued to create chances & Devon scored his second of the day from tight in the corner on the right wing curling in a beauty with his left foot that the Richmond keeper could only parry into the roof of the net so it was Richmond 1 – Box Hill 2. That was the way the score line finished at half time.

Martin made some changes at half time bringing on Carl on the right wing, Patrick on the left & Ben up front. Box Hill started where they left off & were competing for every ball & moving it around nicely. It was end to end stuff with Box Hill having the upper hand & eventually they made it count. Devon scored another beauty from distance though a less acute angle which found the top corner and brought up his hat trick & his 8th goal in the league. To Richmond’s credit they fought back & started to apply pressure on the Box Hill defensive zone where Matt, Josh, Jonty & Sam were resolute in defence. The odd through ball that they couldn’t handle was looked after by Tim in goals.

The final whistle brought down the curtain on an entertaining & hard fought match. The coach Martin & his assistant Rick were very pleased with all the boy’s efforts to get the 3 points which keeps them in touch with league leaders Doncaster & gives them a 4 point gap over Richmond.