Player of the game

Mark - Amazing saves as usual, single-handedly kept us in the game when they broke through our defense. Even disadvantaged with multiple 1v1s Mark still got his hands to the ball and stopped them from scoring. You could tell he had shaken the Stretford team when even when a player had turned our player in front of the goal they felt they had to dummy 5 times before attempting a shot to only run out of time due to Mark covering every angle.

I think it would be a disservice not to mention Chris Raffo, Bella, and Noah who were just single votes behind. Noah was working his ass off in the pit, stopping many Stretford attacks. Bella up the other end getting those goals in and with Chris Raffo supporting both roles, stealing the ball and supporting Noah in pit; to blast up the goal and either score or give the assist.

Game Stats

No.	Player	Majors	Goals
1	Mark
2	Fergus
3	Chris R	2
4	Risho	2
5	Ant
6	Will	2
7	Bella		3
8	Richard T	3 (wrapped)
9	Theo	1	6
10	Daz	1
11	Noah	2 (1 Penalty)	1
12	Luke
13	Ruben	1

Match Breakdown

We started strong, with Bella scoring the first goal of the game, we had Stretford on the back foot in the first quarter, and we easily played like the strongest team in the league, Stretford has decades of experience and we had them beat. We ended it with a one-goal lead at 3-2.

Quarter two started with a long stretch of up and down swimming including some amazing saves from Mark, we had 2 exclusions in the first half of the quarter. This would a rolling theme throughout the match. We would lose our one-goal lead and it would be us on the back foot as the Stretford team threw everything they had at us. Ending at 4-5 to Stretford.

In quarter 3, We would equal the score in the first minute, then go back up a goal halfway through. Stretford would then go on a scoring streak, bagging four goals in the space of us only scoring one. This put us in a difficult position going into the last quarter.

The last quarter saw the most exclusions, five from us and two from Stretford. When the refs start calling fouls we need to be quicker and smarter when adjusting to what is causing friction. Overall Stretford is a team I am very familiar with, it's where I started learning water polo over a decade and a half ago, so take it from me, they have never been so close to losing. This was high-tier Waterpolo from all that played, well done.

Comments from the team

Bella had some great goals and was our rock for most of the first half.

Good plays, loads of saves by mark,

Mark was amazing in goal and a Bella put a shift in. Theo did some great shooting, except for his last shot!

The one where Bella shat on the other guy in pit multiple times,

Theos salmon leap up to the ball and swim to score,

whatever happened in pit where the ball got flicked around and then Theo caught for a quick goal,

Marks amazing goalkeeping, I had players in the water saying how good you were while in the game,

Mark H just some incredible saves kept us in it for a very long time,

Bella worked hard throughout the match through some tough play. Great first penalty and one of her famous sneaky goals from the left following a drive in from the wing earned the player/man up and then boom right in the near post when the keeper wasn't paying attention.

some really good defense on man downs lots of great blocks from the whole team.

In attack the double pit worked well in our wide pool and will be good to see it used again.

Bella in pit toughing the defenders out, and outplaying them. Also, Noah gradually pocketed their pit players

My favourite moment of the match was when Noah told everyone it was a penalty when it was just a free pass to Stretford and they just passed and shot while we were setting up for a penalty…