Marlow magic: Deasy sparks men's comeback as women grind out crucial victory

Olly Deasy, scorer of Marlow’s opening score on Sunday

Image courtesy of Ian Foster @IFSportsImages

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Both of Marlow’s first teams claimed valuable wins for the second time in only three weeks over the weekend, with the men’s team extending their unbeaten run in the National League Conference West to five matches.

In bright sunshine on Sunday, following the swirling wind and rain of Saturday, Marlow managed to get the better of their visitors from the University of Bristol.

The Reds dominated possession and their opponents from the first whistle, registering many more circle entries across the first three scarcely believable goalless periods.

Very much against the run of play, Bristol then opened the scoring with seven minutes left to play. The students managed to break free of Marlow’s clutches down the right side on a rare forward foray and an unfortunate rebound in the D saw the ball fall kindly the visitors to play in Joseph Jenkinson for a close-range tap in.

It felt like a ‘smash and grab’ moment and fleeting thoughts of victory must have entered the visitors’ heads, however, their joy was short-lived. Soon afterwards, Marlow found the scoring touch which had deserted them earlier in the contest.

Olly Deasy marauded forward from centre-back to equalise with a deft touch on a reverse stick cross in the 66th minute.

Tom McKinlay then immediately won the ball back from Bristol’s restart and a dangerous cross into the circle was deflected in by a despairing Bristol player to put the Swans 2-1 up.

Two Bristol green cards left the visitors shorthanded for the final minutes and two more goals for the hosts swiped the visitors’ legs from beneath then. Callum White fired a penalty corner into the bottom left corner to make it 3-1 and Jayden Zamler smashed home a scorching shot via the underside of the crossbar from a penalty stroke to rubber stamp the hosts deserved victory.

Marlow remain fourth but are now just a point off second place. They visit third placed Bath Buccaneers this Sunday with a chance to leapfrog them and seriously threaten the teams at the top of the table.

Marlow’s women have lost just one of their last six matches after overcoming a tough Cheltenham side who were level on points with the Reds at the start of the day.

In appalling conditions, Marlow managed to find a way of coming out on top, despite Cheltenham making a bright start to the game and forcing goalkeeper Alys Ramm into an early save.

Marlow managed to wrestle back control after that and took the lead when an accurate pass from Eva Barnett found Kerri Smith in the circle who swept the ball into the goal.

Cheltenham managed to level the scores moments into the second quarter when they scored from their own attacking corner and only strong defending from Poppy Godfrey and Kiera Allen managed to neutralise their dangerous attack.

Cheltenham took the lead in the second half slightly against the run of play, after an unfortunate touch from a Marlow stick diverted a shot between Ramm’s legs.

But Lena Sykora remained calm when Marlow won a penalty corner, lifting the ball over the Cheltenham keeper to level the scores once more

Marlow’s superior fitness then told in the final quarter with Eva Barnett’s deflection from a penalty corner in the 56th minute giving the home side a lead they’d manage to hold onto this time. They remain sixth despite the win but have given themselves a valuable cushion over the teams beneath them in the Conference West table.

Elsewhere the men’s second tea picked up a valuable and deserved three points against Oxford Hawks 3rds, while the women’s 2s played out a frustrating 1-1 draw against Sonning 1s.

The men’s 3s maintained their table-topping position with a 2-1 win in the local derby against Wycombe 1s, the goalscorers being Charlie Rhymer, with a penalty corner deflection and James Ashburner, his ninth goal of the season.