Match Report, by Jack Pitman. Man of the match, Elliot Lowe.

Expecting a very wet afternoon the 6s turned up in Stevenage 12 men strong and eager to redeem themselves from their previous loss last week.

St Albans started strong making some early runs and creating some potential goal scoring opportunities. Jonah had other plans and earned himself a yellow early on but rejoined once his time was up and contributed to the Albans press.

Soon after Jack, in the pursuit of a getaway Stevenage player, made what some may consider a fair challenge and was given a green but also rejoined before any damage could be done.

Stevenage managed to luckily trickle a goal in past the keeper which the patriotic Welshman claimed went in due to his sheer power, putting them in front.

Shortly after the opposition were on the offensive again leading to Jonty making a legal block in front of goal with his hand on stick, which was seen otherwise by the umpires and given as a p-flick. After burying the flick into the bottom left the Saints were undeservingly 2-0 down.

However still keen to get on the score sheet the players newly promoted to the 6s made a break down the right feeding the ball to Elliot which led to a David and Goliath match up with a Stevenage defender in the D, battling for the ball Elliot regains possession and sends the ball flying into the net from a sensational reverse strike on his debut.

2-1 at halftime and the team refueled on jelly babies whilst taking on board a positive team talk from skipper Cormac who had been surprisingly consistent with his reverse aerials this game.

The second half began with the Saints pressing hard on the Stevenage back line slowing down their play. However the opposition broke through and managed to earn a short corner from an Albans foot. Cormac’s supposed evil twin seized the opportunity and slotted into the bottom right to make it 3-1 to the home side.

Further into the game a foul was committed by Stevenage, and the umpire played the advantage before calling it back, which Cormac gregariously agreed with, leaving the umpire furious (still unaware why), so she told him she wanted him off, flipping him a green and leaving Jack to fill in at centre back. The game turned into a back and forth running match; Ollie, George and Ed all showed off some great skill driving into the oppositions half along with Matt and Jonah dictating the midfield with solid defending and consistent passes.

Upon Cormacs return, he sent one of his signature aerials from the 23 to Stuart in the other half who drove with the ball to lay it off to Elliot in the D who fired it into the net again on his strong side this time to get his second of the game, make it 3-2, and secure the Man of the match vote.

Despite another amazing goal we conceded yet another short corner allowing the twin in red to pounce again sending the ball bottom right for Stevenage’s fourth.

On the charge again the Saints made it into their D but the ball was loose, luckily Jack regained possession and was fouled giving another opportunity to score from a short. Everyone was set up in their positions and waiting patiently for Matt to inject. He scuffed the injection sending a slow ball in Jacks direction as left slip. Jack, inexperienced in dealing with terrible injections, panicked and didn’t take the ball out of the D, wasting the short and providing feeble grounds for Matt to stitch him up with a tactical DoD vote.

In the final minutes of the game, the Saints made one last valiant effort with George sending a through ball to Jack who received it just inside of the D and managed to lay it off to Jonah who tucked it in the goal for the final score of 4-3.

The 6s were beaten and robbed once again of a deserved victory. But at least the weather held and didn’t dampen either their spirits or their journey home... great team effort, and if we keep this level of play up, the win is surely coming soon!