After the elation of a win by Reading over Rotterdam on Friday,
the hopes of getting an English team through to the semi-finals faded
yesterday.
There is a history between Reading and Belgium’s KHC
Dragons, which slightly favours the Dragons, but the scores between the two
sides in the past have generally being of the narrowest of margins. Yesterday was different. Maurice Dubois
struck twice in the first 20 minutes
and, at the point where the match was retrievable, Florent Van Aubel scored to
give Dragons a 3-0 lead.
Early in the second half Chris Newman pulled one back from
Reading, but at that stage of the match they seemed to be overwhelmed by
Dragons, who went on to score twice more through their captain Jeffrey Thys,
and Loick Luypaert. Final score 1-5 to Dragons.
Did Dragons play well or did Reading play badly? Probably a
bit of each. Reading certainly did not
display the same gusto and enterprise that they did against theoretically
tougher opponents on Friday.
So that is the end of Reading’s 2012-2013 EuroHockey League
campaign. We still have Beeston left to play this afternoon. They meet the Dutch giants Bloemendaal. We keep being asked what we thing Beeston’s
chances are. If Bloemendaal play like
they did on Friday then expect a Beeston victory to be followed by the earth
spinning off its axis and disappearing into deep space. Surely a small price to pay for an English
win?
