I have seen Reading come back from the dead before but this time it would have needed all the screws on the coffin undone and more digging that even Reading could muster. The standard of hockey in Poland has been in the up for some years, but most of us would probably have placed Pocztowiec Poznan among the also-rans in the European Club Championships here in Bloenmendaal. Things had looked promising for Reading when they took the lead from a penalty stroke in the twenty-third minute. Simon Mantell stepped up and made no mistake. But it only took three minutes for the Poles to show that they were a team not to be easily dismissed when Juszczak converted a penalty corner. It was Reading who were on the receiving end of a penalty stroke award just before the break and teams left the field with the Pole’s having the one goal advantage. Any thought that the Polish lead was down to a fluke were soon dispelled when they struck twice more early in the second half courtesy of Grotowski and Mikula. Reading appeared to be rocked to their foundations but they were soon on the counter attack with England international Jonty Clarke leading the charge. Some over enthusiastic tackling of Clarke (see picture) lead to a penalty corner being awarded, which was converted by Simon Lanyon. Not content with making one mistake, the Poles repeated the mistake and suffered the same penalty, the scorer this time being Richard Mantell. Reading now seemed to have the wind in their sails, but after a few golden moments the Poles recovered and were back on the attack. Gorny scored in open play and then Michniak scored his side’s fifth with five minutes of play left. With seconds left on the clock the frustration all came too much for Simon Mantell, who, following an overly firm tackle after the whistle had been blown, was shown yellow, as was Mikula. Final score 5-3.
On this performance Reading are surely going to struggle in this elite competition. Earlier in the day Scot’s side Kelbourne had shown that they can compete at this level when they took on a Crefelder side packed with German internationals. They took an early lead, but eventually lost the match 2-1 in what was a very creditable performance. Tomorrow Reading will play Crefelder.
