Strong Performance in Final Friendly

For the first 10 minutes of the match, we were continually under the cosh, with wave after wave of Blueharts attackers threatening to overwhelm our defence. We rode our luck a bit but with Geoff Hopkin in goal we did enough to avoid conceding, and began to get the ball out of defence and play some decent hockey. We were really fast on the break and took the lead when Steve Worrall slotted home after a good passing move. After a period of pressure, we doubled our lead when a Luke Kennedy shot as deflected in off an opponent.....but they all count. After a bit of a team talk at half time, we started the second half with a much better shape and could absorb the Blueharts pressure much better. Euan Begg, Robert Holman and Luke Brown all put in tremendous shifts in midfield in the second half, adding width to the attack and working hard to track back and mark their more dangerous players out of the game. Blueharts got a goal back when we failed to clear a short corner, but that seemed to spurred us on. We were electric on the break, attacking so quickly their defence struggled, and Steve Worrall slotting home our third and fourth to complete his hatrick following brilliant attacking play. Euan Begg scored with a tomahawk following a short corner.
The 5-1 scoreline did flatter us a little - Blueharts caused us lots of problems and played with great spirit and determination. But we soaked up the pressure well, and learnt the benefits of tracking back and close marking. Joseph Mari had a tremendous second half supporting the attack and making a brilliant tackle when outnumbered three to one. Josh and Arthur ran themselves ragged up front and pulled the defence from one side to the other. I could go on and on - all the players worked hard for the team and made a real contribution to our success. A great performance - in just three games the new players have learnt a lot, and shown real commitment - it's been great fun!