Sharks (19) vs Bury (9)

Manchester’s LGBTQ+ Water Polo Club

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By teobot217 viewsalmost 2 years ago

Player of the game

Chris Jackson - A great debut, with a strong work rate up and down the pool. He did well tracking back but also helped create some good attacks and finished it all off with a well-taken penalty.

Honorable Mentions

Bella, has been doing a lot of drives, some went unnoticed, but I give her my vote for the effort

Bella for some great work in the pool and being really encouraging to everyone

Luke - was great way end his time with the sharks, but also playing together in this game felt so in tune, swimming down the sides etc loved it!

it’s difficult to pick a player of the match as everyone seemed to be involved and had a good game. Maybe Theo stood out more.

Close second for me was fergilicous. Again amazing work up and down the pool and some great goals.

MOTM had to be Fergus …

Summary

What a brilliant game to finish the season with!

We started the game quite slowly and ended up losing the first quarter 3-2, even after some good play, but only Theo and Bella could get on the scoresheet. But we stuck with our plan and soon got on top with some great goals from all over the pool and we managed to stop Bury scoring at all in the second quarter with some strong team defence and dropping at the right time on the pit. This meant we took a commanding 7-3 lead into the second half. There was a bit of a wobble during the third quarter but we started to have some fun and scored an amazing EIGHT goals in the third quarter. Then the icing on the cake came in the last quarter when Ant scored possibly one of the best goals I’ve ever seen - he took a penalty and played the ball off the crossbar BACK TO HIMSELF and then shot to the opposite corner the goaly had dived to … just amazing!

We tried to organise things a bit differently this game and just subbed player in rotation so everyone got approximately the same amount of game time. We also implemented a rule that if you get sent out you need to sub to have some ‘cooling off time’ - both of these ideas went really well and all the feedback about them was overwhelmingly positive. They helped to bring the team together and made the game more enjoyable for everyone taking part.

One of the most impressive achievements about this victory was the number of different players who scored - 9 out of 12 players got on the score sheet, which shows that we are now starting to look dangerous from everywhere.

As most of you know this was my last game as captain and I couldn’t have picked a better game to go out on - it was almost perfect how we played and the team spirit was infectious (I was having as much fun watching on the side as when I was playing in the water). If we carry on playing like this next year then I’m sure we’ll continue to have a lot of success as well as enjoying the games as a team.

Go Sharks!

Game Stats

No.PlayerMajorsGoals
1Mark
2Chris V1
3Fergus2
4Riso11
5
6Rick T1
7Dec3 (W)1
8Bella14
9Theo27
10Daz1
11Chris J11
12Luke1
13Ant1

Some favorite player moments

Dec had a solid third quarter with two steals and an amazing goal

Beating Bury so very convincing and having Daz’s last match as Captain being such a good one

Getting Newsh (Bury’s captain) wrapped 😂

The general team spirit of all playing as equals with plenty of match time for everyone.

Ants penalty

Ant’s penalty pass to himself

Fergus's amazing back hand flick that almost went in the goal, it was a beautiful move though sadly didn't pay off.

There was a goal that Bella should have got but it wasn't called and Theo made sure it went in, great but of work there.

Great goal from declan, it was a ballsy shot and it paid off

Slick push shot goal from risho toward the end, it was a professional job

Overall great game and it was really fun to play. It's a shame Luke didn't get a goal on his last game with us but he played amazing regardless.

Our defense was good but if we are gunna drop we need to make sure it's off the right people. Which we figured out by the second half

Good to see a rotation of people in pit letting others have a go and not letting Bury defense get in a routine also gives theo chance ot shoot from the top.

Dec did some great defense and chasing back to steal the ball off the young twins. And a great goal.

Sure im not the only one but ants penalty miss/self assist (sounds rude) goal was amazing.

Diff people taking penalties seemed to work well.

Subbing out if ur sent out also worked well.

Everyone got equal game time which was good to see.

The movement and drives for the counter attacks was good was more than just one person up on their own. Was always at least 1 other player with them so if defender committed to player with ball it left someone on the other side free for pass n easy goal.

Ant penalty, never in all my years have I seen a penalty scored that way

Ant’s rebound penalty goal deserves a mention too.