Hertford V 1 - 1 Southgate Tankards (over 55s)

Our annual game against the venerable Tankards (oldest player this time was 78) should really have gone our way, but if you don't take your chances......

With a lot more time and space that usual, we started both halves with some excellent hockey, moving the ball around confidently at the back, opening up midfield, spreading the ball around, using back pass options and keeping possession. But againts a packed and experienced defence we rarely got into good scoring positions, a handful of crosses whizzed across the D without finding the vital touch, and we began to get impatient. DPJ drew a good save with one of our rare shots on target, but it was a huge relief when Luke chased Chris Shattocks shot across the line right on half time.

Andy and Arjun kept the midfield battened down, so Tankards only had a couple of moments on the break in the first period, their only real chance coming from a short corner that scraped just wide. For a while after the break it looked like the goal had settled us down again, but the scoring opportunities remained scarce and the vital second goal didn't come, and it was frustrating to lose the lead to a rather soft short corner with 10 minutes to play. Steve managed a decent shot from a short, but in the last minute it was Southgate who nearly nicked it, as their goal hanger gave me the slip and Nick Izzard came racing off the line to force the shot wide.

Lots of nice passages of play all round the pitch, with Tor, Rian and Chris Dean working together well up the left in the first half, and Rob and Luke, then Chris Shattock and Tom exploiting space wide right in the second. We'll need to step up a gear now, but this was a good run out and reminded us of the attractive style we showed we could play in back in the Autumn.