Hertford 5s 5-2 Bedford 6s

The 5s looked to continue their unbeaten start to the season with a trip up the A1 to Bedford, who had also been claiming scalps and sat 2nd with only our 6s having found the net against them so far.
We knew it would be our toughest encounter yet having heard the report from the 6s, and we started with a defensive mindset. However this backfired as we invited pressure from the smooth passing, hard hitting team in burgundy. Bedford opened the scoring after 7 minutes, their dangerman cutting across the top of our D onto his weak side before tomahawking into the bottom right. They doubled their lead 8 minutes later with a short corner flick. It took going two behind for us to get into our attacking gear - we started to shift the ball nicely, and offered a big threat on the counter with plenty of pace across the squad. We got one back after Josh received the ball on our own 23 before hearing a distant call from Darren somewhere miles ahead. The probing pass miraculously found its target, and Darren charged through on goal and finished neatly to make it 2-1. Never in doubt. Josh and Darren combined again on the 25 minute mark, with some neat work inside the D following a broken down short corner resulting in the equaliser. The first half was brought to a dramatic close with the hot-headed Bedford no.10 thinking it would be a sensible idea to launch the ball into the side of Jasper’s head from a metre away. After a concussion check and being bandaged to look like Mr Bump it was apparent that Jasper wouldn’t be partaking any further, and the midfield would have to step up to fill the void left in his absence. Jasper still awaits a sincere written apology…
After a fiery half time interjection from our enigmatic centre forward, we went back out ready to complete the turnaround. And boy did we. Sublime defending from our back 4 plus some more smart saves from the continually impressive Kieran meant that we could reshape the midfield and push forward confidently with a strong foundation behind us. It was counter attacking hockey at its finest. Combining the pace and tenacity of Chris, Ben and Ed, the creativity and control of Steve and Josh and the attacking positioning of Darren and Mark led us to score 3 spectacular goals. Chris slipped the ball through to Darren for his hat trick; Ed crossed for Ben to finish at the back post; Darren’s miss-shot from a tight angle was brilliantly tipped in at the far post by Ed to open his 5s account after a wicked debut.
Overall a fantastic team display we can all be proud of. We fought hard when needed, and played smart hockey across the whole pitch. The fantastic 5 at the back deserve huge recognition (play like that against Bengal Tigers and we might keep it to single figures!?) and also Chris for a strong game in the middle of the park, but MoM goes to Ed for giving their left back heart palpitations in the second half and giving a cracking (and long awaited) 5s debut.
Enjoy a week off before a fun trip down to Redbridge in a fortnight…
Josh