Orient Lyngby Overtake Canterbury
16 Feb 2008
Danish side Orient Lyngby secured their first win of the EuroHockey Indoor Club Championship Cup in an open game of hockey against England’s Canterbury HC. In a fluent and attacking game, there were plenty of goals to entertain a noisy crowd and it was Orient that took the game 9-5.
Canterbury had brought along lots of very vocal – and instrumental – fans, who were behind their team the whole way, despite the outcome. Fans were treated to a game which was all about the attack, although for Canterbury this was to their loss. The English side were always looking to push forward to attack Dane Andreas Haldrup’s goal, and tested him several times early on, managing a well worked field goal from Matt Harper to put Canterbury ahead.
It was this that seemed to spur the Danes into action, with four goals in rapid succession. Canterbury’s determination to get up the court left them vulnerable to a counter attack, which Orient exploited at every opportunity. Canterbury’s Ben Cowling performed admirably in goal, but Orient were attacking with such regularity that he couldn’t keep every shot out.
Orient’s Casper Guldbrandsen and Christopher Hellstrand both got themselves on the score sheet three times, a feat matched by the powerful Canterbury forward David Mathews also scored a hat-trick yesterday against KS Pocztowiec Poznan. Despite Mathew’s efforts Canterbury were out gunned by Orient who scored the lion’s share of goals in the second half.
The hockey was fluent and smooth from both sides, and Canterbury weren’t deterred when Orient scored quickly, but it was ultimately their commitment to bombarding Orient’s defence that was their undoing, with the Danish team racing up the court to face Cowling every time.