St Albans IX 12 - 1 Hertford VI

Our heaviest ever defeat (by a long way)! Not the happiest end to our 2nd league campaign.

Positives - we can still get 16 players out in the last week of the season.

100% conversion rate for our short corners.

It was nice and sunny.

We never gave up!

St Albans admitted they put out their strongest side this season (they would have given our 4s a good game), we were unbalanced and and badly short of pace, and had few answers to the constant pressure. We didn't help ourselves by repeatedly hitting the ball straight at them the first half. For 20 minutes after half time (already 6 - 0 down) we scrapped the subs rota and played our best XI, and kept in to 2 - 1 (Dave Harding's first time short corner strike).

Nick probably made more saves than in any other game for us this year, the back line fought bravely but were repeatedly overwhelmed by the pace and numbers. Midfield (including me) simply struggled to keep up.

We did play some nice hockey when we got on the front foot. Aodhan and I worked some brisk moves down the left, Chris Duncan always produced a bit of pressure when we managed to get the ball through to him, and Chris Dean (when he wasn't clearing off our goal line) made a splendid solo break from half way but saw his shot tickled wide. His finish on Chris Duncan's 2nd half cross (after a lovely lay off from Daryl) went inched wide in the 2nd half.

Reflections and statistics on the season will follow at a later date.

Geoff