Bristol & West Hockey Club - Bristol's Friendliest Hockey Club

7 March 2010

3s make it tough for league leaders.

Bristol and West 0-1 Yate A

Like the boy who stood with his finger in the dyke (Ken, NO!), repelling the waves that threatened to swamp the countryside, the 3rds coped magnificently with an on form, top of the table Yate team. That is until the 65^th minute. There had been a few chances and had Yate scored a classic with one of their free flowing moves there would have been little complaint; but a scrappy short that ended with a slowly looping finish that barely hit the back board marked the end of a defiant display.

Yate had turned up with a bare 14. The rumours that the 15^th man was last seen driving a Curry’s delivery lorry with a consignment of washing machines slowly around the countryside remain, as yet, unfounded.

Yate are top on merit and behave like all good teams, they turn up on time, generally together and do all sorts of complicated warm up routines. They take to the pitch with a win, win, win mentality.

Bristol and West are middle to bottom, on merit, and turn up. Generally before the match starts. One incredibly high quality lap of half the pitch, some fairly non specific stretching and some ineffectual passing saw the 3s ready and raring. We took to the pitch with a “where’s the bloody captain, and where’s the midfield gone?”

A new look midfield against the league leaders seemed like a brave move but as it turned out Ali and Don played very well through the middle. Ali had the Duracell bunny to mark but still managed to be the lynch pin. Again we blooded some youth with Laurence filing in down the left, gaining confidence with every passing minute. Tom continued his sterling work up front but the forwards had too much to do and managed to create very little against a solid defence. Dave, in his second match, had another great game at the back. Playing in the middle in front of the work-shy gobby sweeper is never an easy task and it tells a story that Yate didn’t manage a goal from open play and only had a limited number of chances.

From the very start when Baz self passed the first hit of the game, we never let Yate settle. Their obvious class and skill meant that they threatened throughout but the thirds are a tough bunch who have come to work for each other and we never let them have anything easily.  We even had them down to 10 at one stage, a bit of shouting and swearing never goes down well with umpires and so it was  that the centre-forward was given 10 minutes off to go tidy his lego and put his superman pyjamas back under his pillow. The toys had obviously completely come out of the pram because even at the end of detention he preferred to sit on the edge of the pitch muttering about it all being so unfair.

In the brief respite of 11 v 10, stand in skipper Stuart found time for some Ken-like forays in to the opposition half. But as with most of our attacking endeavours they ended fruitless.

In the pub it became apparent how we’d managed to cope so well with Yate. We’d been playing 12 all match. That is until it was noticed that C. Squibbs was on the match card twice; not spotted incidentally by C. Squibbs.

2 to go and as the next one is not against top of the table opposition we might actually see the skipper in the ranks.

Category: 3rd Team |