A hard earned win.

The first home game of the season for the men’s 1s came against Marton Furness 2s. With previous hard hitting encounters between the teams and a poorer performance last week Jesmond were keen to get the victory and keep their composure.

The game began and immediately JPC were on top. Some excellent play in the midfield from Craig Duffy, Dan Clarke and Stephen Robertson allowed JPC to exploit the defense with Euan Stenhouse and Michael Davison both missing chances... more of that to follow...

As Marton grew into the game more JPC finally got the breakthrough. Dan finding Stephen in the middle of the D to finish calmly past the keeper, 1-0.

More JPC pressure followed and any chances Marton did threaten were quickly snuffed out by our superb defending.

The defense were even getting involved in the attack with Matt Nicholson showing just how much he wanted it (Stephen did ask) by throwing himself into a challenge and ending up head over heals on the floor. Luckily Matty was dazed momentarily to spare his violent reaction.

Again the pressure on the D told and JPC were able to grab a second goal. This time Craig found dan in the D who dribbled past some diving Marton defenders and slotted it in the bottom corner. More chances came and were missed (Davison) to round out the first half with the score still at 2-0.

A rousing speech from Craig (nick actually allowing him to speak this time) gave JPC new focus for the second half.

An intense half began with both teams creating half chances. Andy Cockerill just missed from a tight angle despite there being 2 of his teammates unmarked in better positions. The ball fell to Davison at the top of the D... surely a sure fire goal... sadly not as the ball would have missed about 3 goals as Euan put it.

Despite the pressure it was Marton Furness who grabbed a goal. A short corner led to a hard hit just clipping the top of the backboard. A younger Jonny Greenshields would have covered it easily but everyone can see him struggling to get down as quickly in his senior years.

The intensity of the game increased after this goal. Both teams desperate for the result. Pete Basta, having played excellently till then decided to inject some life into JPC by reducing their numbers. After a Marton free hit Pete ran next to the man on the ball for 20 yards before then running away while Duffy made the tackle. This sadly was enough to earn a yellow card. Pete was calm about the whole thing though.

JPC responded well to this and had an increased period of play while down to 10 men.

Eventually the final whistle went and JPC we rewarded for their hard work with a 2-1 win. George Darling was awarded man of the match for excellent defending and pace... you could barely see him the speed he was going.

Next week we move on to play Durham University. Always a hard fought game but after 2 wins out of 2 desperate for a good result!