Mens 3 vs City Of Peterborough 5

The Men’s 3s arrived at Peterborough Sports Centre in good spirits after a first win of the season the previous Saturday and with a healthy squad of 14 plus a manager in Seve supporting on the sidelines. As we were advised on numerous occasions, this was an eminently winnable game, especially with youth amongst our forward line.

After the umpteenth member of the squad asked where they needed to register their car for parking (possibly an oversight by El Capitan in terms of useful information for the match!) the team set out for a warm up and having found a quiet road to run down and avoided a near miss with an ambulance turning in, they set back to the pitch to prepare for the game.

With the match before over, almost all of the team headed onto the pitch incident free. Unfortunately for today’s author, this proved a step too far with the metal grills on the entrance proving too much of a hazard as both feet flew in the air and he landed flat on his back - surely a shoe in for DoD!

Following the untimely death of Ely’s Matt Tonge who played his last hockey match for them against the 3s just four weeks ago, the team donned bland arm bands and a minute’s silence was held in his memory.

As the hame started, St Ives quickly settled into a rhythm making good use of wide players John P and Michael to create a number of chances and with just 3 minutes gone, Jonathan Say stole in to make it 1-0. The pressure continue to mount with wave after wave of attacks and just ten minutes later it was 2-0 to Ives as newbie Matthew Mann got his first goal for the club at the second attempt, showing tenacity to win the ball back after his first shot was saved.

Unfortunately, after a really bright start, the team then switched off and Peterborough managed to pull a goal back from one of their first attacks. Our trusty GK, Denman, maintains that the shot was taken from outside of the D (think ‘it was this big’ style fishing) but the umpire was having none of it so it was 2-1.

Ives regained their composure and after a nice built up on the left, Matthew was on hand to score his second with a reverse stick hit just outside the far post. This was followed up with a further Ives goal on the brink of half time with Jonathan getting his second following a lovely piece of play making it 4-1.

As the end of the half approached, Ives suffered a further lapse in concentration resulting in Peterborough having a couple of minutes of pressure in our half but thankfully this and the subsequent short corner came to nothing.

The half time talk was all about coming out and playing the same way, with the same intensity and being prepared for Peterborough to move up through the gears. Unfortunately the warning wasn’t well heeded and Peterborough were instantly on the offensive and having earned themselves a short corner, scored at the second attempt with a pass to the far post deflected passed both post man and keeper.

While some composure was regained, the second half was much more even and much more scrappy. Your author also almost got away with his earlier scrape when a youngster from the opposition (rumour has it he was one of 18, 12 or even 9), managed to send Jago flying with the merest of touches. Sadly despite running me close, it wasn’t quite enough.

As Peterborough attacked again, they were awarded another short corner and scored thanks to a drag flick to the keepers right brining things to 4-3. That made for a nail biting finish - Ives were unlucky not to get a fourth goal with Luke recovering the ball after a first shot was saved before then escaping his marker to shoot passed the keeper only to hear that he’d caught the defenders stick on the way through but it was inevitable with how the game had gone that on the brink of full time, Peterborough should be awarded another short corner.

Thankfully, despite multiple corners being awarded in a row, these were seen out and Ives proved victorious. Final score 4-3 with Jonathan Say romping to the MoM vote.

With another ‘very winnable’ game next week, let’s hope the streak continues… onwards and upwards!