Heavy defeat for Development Team

It was always going to be a tough day at the office with both Steve and now Tim out injured. We immediately found that the St Albans team were going to cause us problems - they passed the ball around the pitch with real pace, had decent individual skills and could run and run and run. We started a bit slowly and took a while to settle, and found ourselves defending for a lot of the first half as we struggled to cope with their attacks down the right hand side. We went one - nil down to a back post deflection and conceded another from a short corner drag flick. We worked hard and did manage to pose some problems for their defence but we too often tried to dribble or pass the ball through their players, giving the ball away too often. Despite managing their right hand side better in the second half, their pace and movement continued to cause problems as we shipped three more goals fairly early in the second half - two from short corners and a deflection. We could have crumbled but the boys worked hard to keep it together, and were unlucky not to score when Josh's flick just went over the bar.
A hard game but the St Albans team played some very good hockey - good to see but difficult to be on the receiving end of!