De Cymru and Marches One League

Cirencester 6 Yate 7

YATE won a 13-goal thriller in the last two minutes of their clash away at Cirencester on Saturday in the De Cymru and Marches One League.

Cirencester started quickly and dominated for the first five minutes but it was Yate who opened the scoring when Mark Harris deflected a superb pass by Dom Chambers. With Cirencester rattled, Harris scored another deflection and the lead was further increased by a Darren Ashley penalty corner flick.

Yate had scored three goals in four minutes and this became four goals when Danny Pearce drove into the Cirencester D and scored with a reverse stick shot.

Cirencester were shell shocked for a period but were able to rally when Elliott Lawrence was temporarily sent off.

Cirencester attacked furiously and won a penalty corner that was converted, then scored with a fast break away and scored again through another penalty corner.

The half ended with Yate leading 4-3 and both teams believing they could win the game. Early in the second-half, Cirencester levelled at 4-4 with a penalty corner and the game flowed from end-to-end as both teams attacked.

Yate then went ahead when Harris completed his hat-trick but Cirencester went straight back to equalise again.

Yate attacked Elliott Lawrence won a penalty stroke that Pearce converted but back came Cirencester to 6-6.Yate were briefly reduced to nine men with another player sin-binned for ill-discipline and two players injured.

Now Yate were hanging onto the game whilst Cirencester dominated. When Yate were back to 11 players, Dom Chambers passed out of midfield and helped win a penalty corner.

A well worked routine saw Pearce follow up on a fine Cirencester save and his coolness under pressure allowed Sam Patton to score from close range.

With the score now 7-6, anything could happen in the last three minutes but Yate finally managed to maintain some control and they saw the match out by retaining possession.