By Andy Davis

WEST HOCKEY LEAGUE MEN’S PIRAN DIVISION ONE

Bude 3 Ocean City 0

THE Seasiders continued their promotion charge on Saturday with a 3-0 success over visiting Ocean City Seconds at the Budehaven Sports Centre.

Despite having successfully navigated their way through the recent set of tough fixtures, they didn’t have it all their own way on home soil.

Bude started brightly and moved the ball well to create some half chances, but these came and went without a goal.

Undeterred, the hosts continued to try and figure out how to unlock a stubborn Ocean City defence but the harder they tried the harder they seemed to make it for themselves.

The Plymouth outfit’s admirable defence could not be complimented by any attacking threat as the only shot they had towards goal throughout the whole game came midway through the first half and went whistling wide.

With little attacking threat from the visitors, Bude dominated the middle of the park and went back to creating various chances from both open play and set piece penalty corners.

But despite their overwhelming dominance, the Seasiders could not find the net and as time ticked on the first half ground to a disappointing halt at 0-0.

With the weather and pitch being partly to blame for the lack of goals as the hot, slow and sticky conditions made defending far more easier than attacking as the pace of everything was that much slower.

Bude knew something had to change at half-time so they made the tactical decision to switch things around by pushing an extra man high and pressing much higher up the pitch to give them the extra numbers in attack that would be needed to successfully break down their opponents.

It took a while for Bude to adjust but pleasingly they did not panic and stuck to the plan with resilience and belief like champions that things would come good in the end as they began mounting more and more pressure on Ocean City rearguard.

The momentum was slowly shifting but the charmed Ocean City goal survived until the final third of the game.

But the patient home pressure eventually hit bursting point popping in Bude’s favour as a simple penalty corner straight to the top of the D was hit by Matthew Horton straight back into the bottom corner of the goal.

With the shackles off Bude finished the game very convincingly with two further goals, each five minutes apart.

The first arrived with a strong drive down the left followed by a baseline run where the ball was crossed into the danger zone for the advancing Henry Gwynn-Thomas who came to meet it perfectly to deflect it nicely into the back of the goal.

It was 3-0 when Tom Lush fired home from a tight angle close in as he flicked the ball into the top corner past both a defender and the keeper to seal a solid if not spectacular win.

But at this stage of the season where every point is crucial, it does not matter when the goals go in as long as they do.

Bude’s man-of-the-match was awarded to Matthew Horton for getting the crucial first goal, and they can happily continue to look forward to Saturday’s trip to Plymouth Lions.