Mens 3 vs Royston 1

Northstow was hosting a running festival in honour of the Men’s 3s first warm up game today. To show our appreciation the assembled players managed to channel this Fun Run sport as we chased our tails and the opposition for a full 70mins. The majority of the time without the ball. 

The game started with positive passing control of the ball and an enthusiasm which was lovely to see. Due to the high inevitable preseason politics the Mens 4th team game had unfortunately been cancelled and some of the stalwarts of the 3s had been promoted to support the higher teams. In this spirt Warren offered to dress in a white shirt and support the opposition as their players were delayed. (After the game it was noticed that this was the period when we played best. Against 9 but still really nicely)

Our opposition proved that they may be from the stronger side of the division as they quickly started to exert their skills and tactical knowledge. An initial Penalty Stroke was scored as John Tudor cynically placed his midriff in the way of an oncoming shot. Happy to escape with out the accompanying card we resumed to find that as well at Royston breaking their duck they had also firmly wedged open the flood gates. There was one obstacle to the game becoming an embarrassing rout and that was our very own high visibility goal keeper Mr Denman. 

Today was truly a day for Steven to shine. Goal keeping practice was definitely in session and despite the score line Steven was able to shine. 

Multiple saves were the story of the game as well as some beautifully time stick tackles which put the defence to shame. It is fair to say that without the pink panther today we would have been in a sorry state where the only real game practice we would have achieved would have been in taking push backs. 

That said there were some good performances in the out field. Dave Jones was as usual calm and effective in defence, Miles Dickens was great at right back carrying the ball well and putting pressure on the attacking forwards. Greg Say eventually ran out of oxygen after 55 mins of defending the whole left hand side. I was very impressed today with Aaron who after a nervy start grew in to the game. Lovely positioning and desire to get forward if at times slightly Bambi like with his footwork. An effective game upfront for Tom Hingston did not result in goals mainly due to a lack of service however the movement and desire to beat a player to the ball was recognised and bodes well for the season. 

The final result of 0-9 was not deserved. St ives should have score at least one and the one open goal miss has had to be fined. If we are discussing what should have been deserved however Royston deserved more that the 9 they put in the net only the heroics of Mr Denman kept the score semi respectable. 

DOD for Mr Jago was definitely deserved as the preseason gym sessions had had such an effect that his swing to clear the ball was so powerful he was no longer able to keep hold of his stick. He was shocked at how far the stick went as the ball rolled out for a sideline, but not as shocked as the young man who was nearly cut in half by the spinning carbon boomerang. Oops. 

We will go again next week hopefully with more success