March 21, 2018, by Kate Rothery
BUCS Big Wednesday: UoN Water Polo take Trophy title convincingly
After beating University of Warwick 15-4 in the semi-finals and already sitting at the top of the Midlands 1A league, University of Nottingham were confident as they hosted Manchester Men’s 1st in the BUCS trophy finals today. Playing at David Ross Sports village in front of a home crowd, they didn’t fail to entertain!
First half action:
A confident UoN side took the lead after just 3 minutes but Manchester quickly equalised, settling the nerves in front of a loud and noisy home crowd. The start of the game saw the action fly from end to end as both teams vied for the early advantage. UoN nearly sneaked ahead 2-1 but an excellent save from the Manchester goalkeeper with his head, and then a narrow scrape off the line kept the score at 1-1.
UoN held on as their number #4 served a time suspension, not allowing Manchester to take advantage of the extra man. Then with some impressive passing, they finally took the lead – 2-1 to UoN. It didn’t last long however and both teams continued to trade goals – 3-3.
However, with some tough defending and taking their opportunities at the other end of the pool – it was at this point that UoN started to cement a lead. Time outs from both squads at 4-3 calmed the atmosphere and UoN returned to control possession. With some spectacular saves from goal keeper Robert Smith, they stormed ahead, going in at the half-time break 6-3 up much to the delight of the sell-out crowd.
Second half action:
An eventful second half saw 9 balls hitting the back of the net in all.
UoN got off to a great start and added to their tally, making it 7-3 within seconds. They started to look more comfortable, with controlled passing around the goal enabling them to fire shots repeatedly at a tiring Manchester side.
Manchester got a goal nack, but Nottingham quickly added 3, then another 2 to cement their lead 12-5. Manchester did manage to get one back when both the UoN goalkeeper and defender were drawn out leaving the goal open. However, as the last play of the game – this was quickly forgotten amidst the #GreenandGold celebrations!
Full time result: University of Nottingham 12 – Manchester 6
12-6!
A very eventful and entertaining game! A great win for UoN Sport who by the end of the second half looked the much stronger side. Great team effort as the majority of the greenandgold gold were worked beautiful throughout the team!
Man of the Match, University of Nottingham goalkeeper GK Robert Smith was thrilled with the victory:
‘ It was a whole team game – everyone was crashing in with everything they had to win the ball. This made my job in goal so much easier! The centre backs were outstanding and the overall team effort to only concede 6 goals is incredible.”
“We lost in the final two years ago and for those of us still in the squad, the disappointment is still fresh! It was so good to get this win in front of a home crowd! A huge thank you to our coaches – they push us harder every session to get better and the programme is just thriving!”
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