Hertford VI 0 - 0 Letchworth V

Sustaining a long tradition of close, low scoring games between Hertford and Letchworth in Div 9, we duly played out a nil - nil draw.

Not the highest quality of hockey, plenty of mistakes on both sides, but nevetheless a lively, tense game with both sides creating lots of good attacking positions, but rarely finding a really threatening final touch. Letchworth won the short corner count 8 - 2, we probably had rather more openings from open play, but both keepers were well on top of the few real scoring chances.

Our marking got better and better as the game went on, Tony Dean and Robert Holman (guesting from the 5s) slotting in well into our defensive set-up. The long ball game again paid dividends with a good percentage of balls finding targets, but we looked at our best as the game went on and we rediscovered our confidence in short passing. Robert, Chris, Andy Rawlings and I played some delightful triangles down the left. Noah, Andy Benson and Mark quickly developed a pattern through the middle, but as so often, faced with a deep lying and experienced defence, and lacking any real pace in George Lynn and Chris Duncan's absence, we didn't manage more than half a dozen real chances.

Andy Benson takes man of the match for inspiring most of our best attacking moves, special mention for Noah for a stunning second half work rate, playing up front but still back scrapping for the ball in our own D whenever Letchworth broke away.

That takes our unbeated home run to 2 games (and 2 clean sheets), a record for the 6th team......