Canterbury Men’s 1st XI

v Beeston, (Away), 11/11/07 - Lost 4 - 5

Canterbury conspired to throw away three points allowing Beeston to complete a late comeback and win a close match at Highfields.

Goals in the last 10 minutes from Adam Dixon and then a winner by Chris Seddon were enough for the home side to steal victory as Cantebury failed to close out the game.

Things started brightly for the visitors, who were 2-0 within 11 minutes courtesy of goals from Matt Harper and Chris Bassano-Harper.However, as has happened too often already this season, Canterbury allowed their opposition to pull a goal back within minutes of scoring themselves.On this occasion it was Mohammed Nadeem who was allowed an all too easy path to goal and his reverse stick shot left Adrian Kimber little chance in the Canterbury goal.

The remainder of the first period saw the two sides grind out chances and vie for territory, but neither side could budge the score line.

The second half came to life even more quickly than the first, with Jess Dowsing’s neat chip over Tom Skinner in the Beeston goal restoring his side’s 2-goal cushion.Again weak defending cost Canterbury as David Griffiths was allowed to slide in and convert a seemingly innocuous cross, but Matt Harper replied almost immediately with a cool finish to put his side 4-2 up.

Needing a period of consolidation to take a grip of the game, Canterbury committed the cardinal sin of once more allowing Beeston an instant route back into the match.Increasingly frustrating for the Kent side was that it was dissent shown by Rob Pryce which caused the umpire to upgrade a free hit to the penalty corner that Dixon converted.

When Simon Hare’s shot struck the bar and Rob Pryce missed the far post by a whisker it could be argued that the portent for what was to happen had been shown.

7 minutes remained when Dixon levelled the scores and then heart-breakingly for the visitors Seddon converted with 4 minutes remaining to give Beeston the lead for the first and most important time in the game.

Canterbury’s misery was sealed when Pryce saw an almost identical shot to his earlier miss the same post by the same margin and the Kent side had to make the long journey home with nothing to show for their endeavour.

Squad: Barratt, Bassano-Harper, Butcher, Cowling, Dowsing, Dunn, Farrer, Hare S, Harper, Hudson, Keir, Kimber, Pedersen, Pryce C, Pryce R.