Hertford VI 0 - 4 Southgate Tankards Z

6 changes from last week’s team and a tricky 16 man subs rota to juggle, we took 15 minutes to settle against a Southgate side comprising very young but very skilled kids and a couple of high level vets, and by then we were 2 down and all at sea at the back. With Kash and Tom leading the way we worked our way back into the game, but the third goal went to Southgate and we turned round at 3 – 0.

This must have been one of my better team talks, and with our best 11 restarting after the break we looked at least as good as them for the 3rd quarter. Kash hit the post, and we somehow managed to miss three bites at an open goal, Dave got a couple of good shots in from our numerous short corners, but we couldn’t get the vital goal. The encouraging thing was that, when we started to rotate again for the final corner, everyone raised their game and we continued to pressurise them right to the end, until they caught us on the break at the end.

What went right? We stopped trying to hit or dribble through them, passed earlier, and went into challenges with conviction. Tom gets man of the match for a tireless display at left mid, but special mention for Aodhan and Ewan combining with neat two-touch passes up the right and Richard and Chris working with Tom up the left, and for Tony putting in countless vital tackles at the back.

Plenty of positives, but we will have better days.