Men's 5
Matches
Sat 11 Sep 2021
St. Albans HC
Men's 5
M Norman (43'), (47'), Unknown (62'), D Baylis (55')
4
2
West Herts 4s
Caught in Friendly Crossfire...

Caught in Friendly Crossfire...

Cormac Connolly12 Sep 2021 - 17:06
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Four fired into the net, and one into Joe for good measure.

Match Report by Joe Wilmott.
Man of the Match, Jake Dell

So here it is! The beginning of another season with a friendly against West Herts, with a 6’s team full of hope, ambition, and, knowing us, several beers from the evening before. A mix of old and new members making up the squad gave us the bare 11 at the start, with Ash acting as emotional welfare officer, and Cormac as manager, clipboard and all.

As always, a scrappy start to the game, but the 6’s having the better run of the game. We won the first short corner within 7 minutes. Chris attempted a flick (he has been practicing!). And missed (not practicing enough...). West Herts countered with winning their own short corner, which came to nothing. Another attack from the 6s won us another short, to which Chris attempted a reverse stick shot and fell over. Perhaps feeling sorry for Chris, the keeper “deliberately” saved the shot (the cheek) and pushed it off the baseline, which won us another short corner. That does remind me to read up on the rules for this season, because that’s a new one to me! Either way, the short came out to Chris, who took another shot! And missed.

A few tactical fouls from Matt, oh sorry, Lord Hatfield, stopped a few West Herts attacks. Not to be outdone, Ian then decided to shoulder barge a 15-year-old, asserting his dominance whilst professing his innocence. With the left and right midfielders in the form of Jake and Matt Norman being strong and fast outlets form the defense, Chris found himself attacking the Oppo’s goal. Instead of keeping consistency and missing the shot, he instead decided to hit it into his own foot. Got to be nice, it is a friendly after all. A quick counter from West Herts almost caught out the defense, if it weren't for Ian being commanding and a safe bet at center back. With his years, decades, of experience, the seasoned vet decided a lifted clearance DIRECTLY at the left back WHO WAS JUMPING to get out of the way, was the best outlet. Whack into the knee it goes of the innocent left back, who was just about to sing Ian’s praises, and down goes the left back like a sack of potatoes. Short corner given to Herts. Someone else must have run one and we cleared (I wasn't watching, I was busy trying to find a replacement knee-cap).

Near the half time mark, another shot came from Chris. And it missed. Just shy of the right post this time, suspiciously where newbie Nic or Dan should have been. We were sensing a tactical opportunity though. 0-0 at half time.

Finally, some subs showed up in the form of Ben (teacher) and Ben (pupil). In the first minute of the second half, Dan had a brilliant individual run from our half to the Opps’s D before giving the ball away. After Chris tried to eat the ball (I hope you’ve got a dental plan...), and another short corner was won. This time, the shot went to the back post, where Matt N casually got the defenders stick into the way of the ball for a deflection in. The dead lock was broken! Less than 5 minutes passed, and another short was won. The same tactic was attempted, and this time Matt N did get his own stick in the way. 2-0.

Wanting to make the most of the half he’s shown up for, Ben Scott made a fantastic run into the D, and with the ball in the air channeled his inner Ronaldinho and tried controlling it with his back. The defense got the free hit. After some scrappy play in the oppo’s D, and after hitting it directly into the keeper who was on the floor twice, Nic pulled of a cheeky reverse flick for goal number 3.

Going into fast counter attacking mode, West Herts started pelting long balls through the midfield to avoid Jonesy and Chris, and allowed their wonder kid, number 95, to pull off a reverse stick strike, that Nathan couldn’t do much about. 3-1. However, the two Ben’s and Jake achieved some link up play, winning another short. Seeing space on the left, the decision was to hit it near post for Nic to tap in. Ignoring this, Dan decided to just blast it directly into the bottom left. Fair enough. 4-1.

Tired legs started to show though when number 95 decided to take it around the entire midfield and score another cracking open stick goal. Luckily though the game was called to an end before we needed to stick Ian on him.

MoM was a close call between Jake and Jonesy, with Jake being given the deciding vote from Captain Cormac. DoD was clearly won by yours truly, for being an easy target … literally.

Strong win! Onto the first league game next week!

Match details

Match date

Sat 11 Sep 2021

Kickoff

12:15

Meet time

11:45

Instructions

Assume SAHC play orange, but please also bring white shirts
Team overview
Further reading