Young guns fire despite defeat
Firstly again we welcome another young player, this time Jack, to the 4s and men’s hockey, making his men league debut today.
Having no games for the last 2 weeks and no training on Thursday, we started a bit off the pace and took a bit of time to find our touch and get into the game. Just as we were getting into the game a controversial (foot first then strike) goal saw us go a goal down. Some time you get the decisions sometime you don’t, this one didn’t go our way.
The rest of the half was a bit of a battle, with the young players certainly not overwhelmed with the physical nature of the game (despite in some cases a considerable size different) holding their own and in many cases coming out with the ball. We won a couple of shorts but couldn’t convert so only one down at half time, thanks to a couple of good saves by Nate.
The second half saw a much better attacking performance, with the mid field (Tom J, Paul, Kethan) causing a lot of problems, backed up with two of the Young Guns Conor and Tom S suppling support down the wings from the back. A string of I think 8 shorts on the bounce saw no rewards (guess what we’ll be doing at training again!), a few missed chances, Jack and Kethan causing mayhem at the top of the D, (with the opposition having to double or triple team just to prevent that final ball in) and a mazy run by Martin bringing a excellent save from their keeper but still no rewards.
We rued our missed chance when the opposition broke down our left with an overload slotted home to make it 2:0 with about 10 to go. The final 10 was a bit scrapy, and although we kept pushing, the opposition were still very physical and quite good at disrupting the play and flow. A bit of frustration crept in and with 2 mins to go Paul saw the red mist and yellow card for a cynical tug of the shirt.
Final score was 2:0 to Cambridge South.
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Captains thoughts –despite the loss there are a lot of positives in particular we had six U15s who do not look out of place in men league, and we are playing some nice hockey, and although we have a great team spirit, we are still a team getting used to playing with each other, so as we go through the season the results will come.

Player of the Match - Jack - Held the ball up nicely despite the physicality of the opposition, never held back in the tackle or afraid to take them on. (Close behind Conor and Martin)

Champagne moment – Martin’s run and shot a great drive forward (from defensive centre mid!) beat a couple of player and only a great save from the keeper prevented it being a perfect moment.

Captain’s mention – The parents – Thank you, without you taxi-ing the boys around we wouldn’t have a full team every week – it really is appreciated.