The Heads of the Valleys Hotshots had 3 teams in action on Sunday 10^th February at the Rhondda Fach Leisure Centre.

HOV Hotshots Under 14’s 5

Cardiff Capitals 5

The Hotshots were made up of mainly Under 12’s for this match, and really gave the team from the capital a run for their money.

The Cardiff outfit took the lead when the Hotshots defence were caught out and Owen Price in goal was left with too much to do.

Alex Trotman evened the scores up almost immediately, with Captain Thomas Heard giving the Blaenau Gwent outfit the lead soon afterwards.

The Capitals pulled the scores level again, but Joseph Heard scored to give the Hotshots a 3-2 half time lead.

Liz Baker replaced Price in goal at the start of the 2^nd period, and saw her attackers pile on the pressure to her opposite number.

Thomas Heard made it 4-2, and then Sarah Rodgers made it 5.

Both Rodgers and Trotman had goals disallowed, and at this point the Cardiff side took the upper hand.

Three late goals saw the scores evened up at the final whistle.

Peter Rodgers, Berwyn Roderick, and Robert Jones from the under 14’s and David Robinson, Rachel Grovell, Stewart Rickwood and Matthew Day from the under 12’s all contributed to this excellent game.

HOV Hotshots Under 10’s 3

Howadian 12

Greg Apperly in goal gave his all to this game again, and defenders Samantha Rodgers, Jamie Robinson and Michael Grovell worked hard to keep the Cardiff attackers at bay, but with little success early on, as the Howardian’s were soon 3-0 to the good.

Jamie Lewis scored 2 quick goals for the Blaenau Gwent side with Jordan Meale netting the 3^rd.

Liam Rickwood and Kane Lewis played well, but despite some promising attacks, the Blaenau Gwent youngsters were outgunned.

HOV Hotshots Under 10’s 5

Risca Romans 0

The Hotshots were awarded a 5-0 victory, as the Risca outfit were unable to field a team.

HOV Hotshots Under 18’s 4

Pontypool 1

Jason O’Neill in the Hotshots goal was in exceptional form against their local rivals.

The only goal of the first half fell to the Hotshots, when Nick Rogers set up Gareth Liddington.

Early in the 2^nd period Pontypool equalised, but the stale mate was short lived as James Trotman set up Captain Phil Rodgers for the 2^nd goal, with Gareth Emms netting the 3^rd off a Greg Symonds pass.

Michael Haile completed the scoring with a great slap shot near the end of the game.

This match was marred by a late flurry of penalties, with Nick Rogers, who had already had a 10 minute penalty in the first half, getting a red/yellow, which meant he had to sit out the remainder of this game.

HOV Hotshots Under 18’s 11

Voodoo Hawks 3

Sadly, what marred the end of he last game was to do the same to this one, although until the final few minutes, this was an exciting, if a bit one sided, match.

Phil Rodgers got the Hotshots off to a great start with an early goal, with Greg Symonds netting the second off a Jason Rickwood assist.

Rickwood hit the 3^rd himself, with Michael Haile firstly scoring the 4^th and then setting up the 5^th for Gareth Emms.

The Hawks, from Cardiff, hit 2 goals, but at the end of the half, James Trotman netted the 6^th from just inside the opposition half.

Symonds hit the 7^th at the start of the 2^nd period, with Nick Rogers making it 8-2 shortly afterwards.

The scores remained the same until the last 5 minutes or so of the game, when an incident occurred involving Rickwood and the Hawks net minder. This soon became a minor brawl, resulting in Rickwood getting a red/yellow card and getting thrown out of this game, and Symonds receiving a red card, which means he must miss at least one match, depending on the results of a disciplinary hearing.

Despite this interruption to the game, the Hotshots went on to score 3 more goals, with Nick Rogers setting up Gareth Liddington for the 9^th, and then completing his hat trick with 2 late strikes.