A match played in glorious sunshine brought us a glorious win, a rather unfamiliar experience recently.
The early phases were quite even but we had the better of it in attack. Luke, playing only his second match, positioned himself well to receive through passes and though he did not score showed that he will develop into a real asset up front. Christian played a solid right half and showed he has really improved his tackling and positioning skills confirmed by a quite remarkable interception of a rising shot at goal.
Our objective was to not lose by too much but this had to change when Mike intercepted a ball in left attack, went for a mazey dribble round half the defence then slipped the ball through to Ashley who calmly went through two defenders before slotting the ball home to give us the lead. Ben played with his usual panache but with a big plus. He dominated the midfield and topped a great overall performance with a superb goal flicked in from a penalty corner.
The defence played resolutely. New signing Wayne was a colossus at centre back making lots of excellent tackles despite a nine year lay-off from the game. Jan-Willem at left half never tired of tackling back and making things awkward for the opposition. Berl and Billy at wing backs pushed themselves to the limit and gave nothing away. It was really unfortunate that just before half time the opposition earned a 50/50 short corner that was converted to make the game more interesting.
After the break Andy had several opportunities to show off his goalkeeping skills with great success. Barry as sweeper did what it says on the tin with minimal fuss. There were half chances at both ends before Wayne had to leave the pitch with a pulled hamstring. After that it was discipline time while the clock wound down to the end of the game which we managed with just one scare.
So that leaves us in third place in the 9th division. It sounds good even if we have only played one game!