Hertford VI 1 - 3 Bedford VI

We lost the game in a poor first half, not having the pace to deal with a nippy young attack who passed the ball around us briskly and accurately. We did the opposite, rarely finding useful space and passing the ball to white shirts more often than red. Three down after 25 minutes, we went back to basics and thumped a few long balls forward. Daryl had fine strike blocked by a defenders body, a Dave Harding short corner was well saved by the keeper.

After the break (was it something I said?) the backs dug themselves in around the D and determinedly threw back everything that came at them, and we finally began to get things moving up front, breaking quickly with some powerful weaving runs from Ian, and some nice combinations down the right between Aodhan, Daryl and myself. Dave burrowed through to set up Daryl to pull one back, I pulled a couple of crosses back from the by byline (practice what you preach....) but our best effort from Daryl's went screaching over the bar.

In flurries of snow and gathering gloom we finally ran out of steam and the game petered out a 3 - 1. Two champagne moments: Nick, Tony and Steve combining to scrape a succession of shots and pushes away from our goal line when it looked like Bedford couldn't fail to score, and Ian gathering the ball in midfield, sweeping to the left hand touchline, them the width of the pitch to the right before cutting on to cross.

Without Chris Duncan, Nick and Kash we do suffer from a lack of pace (Chris Dean was struggling with injury and I'm getting too old for this midfield lark), but we showed in the second half that we can still do the job if we stick to basics and keep our heads.