The second half was as close as the first, both sides were evenly matched, and both were creating chances. With 5 minutes gone it was the Swiss No.9 who scored with a well taken finish in off the cross bar. Again United rallied, and a minute later Barker pulled United level at 3-3. Neither side could dominate the game, no one knew which way the game was going to go. With 16 minutes on the clock, Uttigen again took the lead after a scramble in the United penalty area. The ball appeared to go in off the Uttigen player’s foot, which is illegal, but the referee gave the goal. Three minutes later Uttigen went 5-3 up with the most controversial goal of the night, the Swiss No.3 slapped the ball into the penalty area, their No.4 deflected the ball of his knee into the goal. The referee again gave the goal, even the Swiss were surprised the goal was given. United were insensed with the ref, and Uttigen capitalised scoring a minute later to make it 6-3.
Player Manager Phil McVey called a time-out so his players could regroup, and refocus on the game. For the final 10 minutes of the match United attacked again and again, and had another 2 clear cut penalties turned down by the ref. With 20 seconds remaining, Barker did manage to pull one goal back to make it 6-4 to the visitors at the final whistle.
Although both sides got an extremely good reaction from the crowd at the end of the game, the referee was booed off, the crowd venting very loudly their frustration at his performance.
After the game, the captain Simon Hosking said, “It was a great game of roller hockey, we are disappointed with the result, but we stand a good chance of turning it around in the away leg, both sides are evenly matched, and it should be cracker in Switzerland.”
Player manager Phil added.” The referee ruined a great game of hockey. He defintiely affected the result. We were not pleased with his appointment as the referee, because he has always been extremely biased against the English sides, both in club competition and International competition. We must have had six to eight clear cut penalties which he did not give, and they scored 2 controversial goals. Take nothing away from Uttigen, they are a good side, all the players get along, and all respect each other. Unfortunately in our sport there is a us and them scenario. All the European teams are either Professional or Semi-professional, whereas here in England we are amateurs. You sometimes feel there may be a hidden agenda within the game, to stop us succeeding. We will keep trying though. I was proud of our teams performance, and it’s still all to play for in the 2nd leg. I’d like to congratulate Uttigen on their win., and we’ll see them in 2 weeks.”
The away leg is to take place on Saturday 21st January in Uttigen.
Teams:
HBU: Dan Barton, Phil McVey, Karl Smith, Nic Espejo, Chris Espejo, Simon Hosking(c), Neil Austin, Steve Newman, Brendan Barker, Garrett Priestly.
Uttigen: Roman Langenegger, Philipp Muhle, Patrick Saurer, Reto Beer, Matthias Burri, Simon Grossen, Christoph Gurtner, Thomas Wenger, Marcel Althaus, Stephen Pauli (c).
