3's Finally lose their Unbeaten Record

Saturday saw Hertford visit the biggest club in the environs of St Albans. At the wonderful facility with 2 water based pitches, we knew this would probably be the toughest away day thus far. The previous week had seen a thrilling 5 all draw with Potters Bar and St Albans had dealt a walloping 4 nil beating to Bedford away who had previously been residing in second place.

As this was skipper Layfields last match before having no freedom happily tying the knot, we were determined to send him on his way to purgatory wedded bliss with 3 points and a further step towards silverware. The only problem was the opposition hadn’t read the script…..

This correspondent hadn’t quite read the pre match instructions correctly and thought it was a 2pm meet for a 2;30pm push back - luckily I still wasn’t the last player on the scene with Miles in the squad, but with good availability across the club we were still in the fortunate position of having cover across the park.

Hertford started with an attacking 3-4-3 formation, but there was only one team in the ascendancy for the opening quarter of the match as St Albans matched up the formation and gave a lesson in how to play on the slick surface. Despite a strong midfield quartet we were overrun from the off as St Albans provided a tangerine tango lesson that we simply couldn’t cope with. 2 goals from open play and one penalty corner strike left us with a colossal uphill battle to rescue anything from the match.

After a reshuffle in formation giving us a bit more stability at the back, we forced our way back into the match, but truth be told we didn’t really have a shot in anger in the first half, so it left us with a huge task in the second half to maintain our unbeaten league run.

But you are not an unbeaten team in November, without having backbone to go with skill and technique and Hertford came out all guns blazing in the second half. The first ten minutes showed us dominating possession and St Albans certainly knew that if they were to win this match they would have to repel a second half onslaught. Excellent attacking intent down our left hand side was matched by intent and skill all over the pitch as up to the D we looked a far more progressive outfit. If truth be told however, the St Albans keeper did not have many saves to make.

However with 10 minutes to go, Hertford forced a penalty corner and Doug flicked towards the top corner. The keeper made a good save and the St Albans defender dangerously hit the ball away inside the D. He connected cleanly and the ball caught Doug clean on the hip. Personally I thought he should have served some time in the bin as it was clearly dangerous, but Doug decided to channel the angst into his next penalty corner routine. This he did with aplomb as the keeper stood tall as Doug flicked low to his left and the fightback was on.

It was at the this stage that St Albans did a very passable impression of AC Milan. Not in that they knocked the ball around at the back and counter attacked with Italian precision and passion, more like every free hit and opportunity to waste time was taken with aplomb. To be honest, all sides would have done the same in their position, but it was certainly frustrating to play against when attempting to keep the tempo high. A couple of further efforts and short corners went begging, if Doug had been able to continue who knows what would have happened, but a second half performance to proud of in adversity, as much as the first half is one to forget or learn from…

Onwards and upwards next week, Clive wasted no time in telling us all that he is back next week and that was clearly the missing link. We will see!

MOM was apparently skipper Layfield, who needs to spend less time on the side and more time on the pitch in the opinion of this correspondent as our most talented player

DOD was unbelievably also Layfield, despite Miles deciding to turn up halfway through the match and tell everyone that ‘we won when I was on the pitch’. We look forward to seeing the wedding photos resplendent with pink specs Jon

All the best for your nuptials Jon, but we have noted you’ve opted to get married during the hockey season..