Lancaster 10
Cheltenham 2

The game started tensely as each set of players assessed the opposition. Lancaster were first to score through Luke Franks making his debut for Lancaster. Centre forward Decland Ellwood added a second minutes later.

Jake Starkey continued the scoring as Cheltenham seemed to struggle against the Lancaster press.

A fine goal from the arch by captain Sam Liver increased Lancaster's lead and dominance. Cheltenham were unable to create a scoring opportunity thanks to the hard work of the team with strong defensive play by Robert Simpson, Sam Smith and Elliott Trafford.

Mathew Calvert completed the scoring to give Lancaster a 5-0 lead at half time Lancaster changed their goalkeeper at half time after a fine display in the first half by Mathias Reichel, Kamil Plucinski was given the goalkeepers hat.

The 2nd half started well for Lancaster with Sam Liver and Luke increasing the lead. As Lancaster continued to make changes to the line up concentration was lost for a few seconds and Cheltenham capitalised and scored their 1st goal.

Lancaster soon regained their dominance and further goals from Elliott, Decland and Luke gave Lancaster a nine goal lead. Cheltenham did manage a late goal to leave the final score Lancaster 10-2 Cheltenham.

Lancaster 11
Barnstable 2

Lancaster's second game was against Barnstable, a new team to Lancaster.
Decland got Lancaster off to a flying star with a goal inside the first 30 seconds. Elliott and Decland finished off fine team moves to increase Lancaster's lead to three goals.

Lancaster's hard work in defence, giving Barnstable little time to settle resulted in Lancaster dominating play. Further goals from Robert, Luke and Lawrence Daykin gave Lancaster a six goal lead at half time.

Second half started with Barnstable being awarded a penalty through Lancaster's bad defensive marking.

Stefan Detko restored Lancaster's six goal lead with a fine wing shot.

Decland added his third of the game as Lancaster took control again.

Another defensive mix-up by Lancaster gave Barnstable a second penalty.

The score now stood at Lancaster 9 Barnstable 2.

Lancaster continued to dominate play and was rewarded with two good team goals scored by Luke and Sam Liver.

The score at the end of the game was Lancaster 11-2 Barnstable.

Lancaster 21
Isle of Man 3

Lancaster third game was against The Isle of Man a new team to the competition.

Lancaster started confidently against a team learning the game at competition level for the 1st time.

Lancaster was soon into their stride with goals from Decland and Sam Smith. Isle of Man struggled against the Lancaster pressure play and found themselves conceding goals at regular intervals.

This did not take anything away from Lancaster's work rate to create these scoring opportunities.

Goals from Decland, Luke, Elliott, Sam Smith and Lawrence gave Lancaster a commanding lead of 7-0. Lancaster continued the pressure, and with more goals from Decland Jake and Mathew the half ended with Lancaster leading 10-0

The second half started with Lancaster continuing to pile on the pressure.

Further goals from Decland (2) and Sam Smith gave Lancaster an unassailable lead.

Coach Zak Sly who had been keeping the team fresh by rotating his players continued to.

Luke, with his good pace, created two fine counter attack goals followed by Greg Barker opening his account for the tournament.
Isle of Man did manage to register on the score sheet with a well taken pit goal.

This spurred Lancaster into another flurry of goals from Elliot and Mathew.

Isle of Man, not to be out done, scored again as questions were asked about the Lancaster defence.

More goals from Lawrence, Luke and Elliot gave Lancaster a 19 goal advantage.

In the final seconds of the game Isle of Man scored their 3rd goal for the final score to be Lancaster 21-3 Isle of Man.

Lancaster 8
Dunfirmline 4

Lancaster's last game of the tournament was against old rivals Dunfermline.

These two teams had gone through the tournament undefeated dominating all their games.

The game started badly for Lancaster as Dunfermline took control with 2 fine goals from their pit centre forward.

Dunfermline continued to dominate play as Lancaster seemed to have no answer to the Scotsman's trickery.

A third goal from the centre forward gave Dunfermline a commanding three goal lead.

Zak, the Lancaster coach, had to change things. His substitutions worked immediately with a powerful swim and score from Robert Simpson.

Lancaster started to apply pressure to the Dunfermline defence which resulted in Dunfermline exclusion.

Decland scored from the man advantage. In the dying seconds of the 1st half Decland scored again for Lancaster to draw level.

Lancaster firmly aware of the Dunfermline threat raised their work rate.

Mathew Calvert scored a pressure goal and soon after Dunfermline were forced to concede a penalty as their Goalkeeper dragged the ball under as pressure mounted on his goal.

Luke converted the penalty to give Lancaster a two goal lead. Dunfermline fought back quickly with a well placed lob.

The game was tense even though both teams had qualified for the next stage of the competition.

Decland caused the Dunfermline defence problems and scored a pit centre forward goal after fine arch play by Lancaster. In an effort to get back into the game the Dunfermline coaches called a timeout, Lancaster's concentration was high and were able to control Dunfermline's set play.

Another powerful break by Lancaster saw Robert finish off the play with a well taken goal. Mathew scored in the last minute of the game to give Lancaster a confidence boosting victory of Lancaster 8 Dunfermline 4

The Lancaster team and goal scorers: Mathias Reichel Sam Liver(4) Lawrence Daykin(4) Luke Franks(10) Elliott Trafford(5) Greg Barker(1) Robert Simpson(3) Stefan Detko(1) Mathew Calvert(5) Decland Ellwood(13) Jake Starkey(2) Sam Smith(3) Kamil Plucinski

The team's next game is in April where Lancaster have players coming back from International duty, nothing can be taken away from how well these players worked for the good of the team.
For more information please visit the club website
lancasterwaterpolo.co.uk