Boys U14 Herts Legaue at Broxbourne

U14 Stags gave a great display of intelligent and competitive hockey on a cold but bright Sunday morning. With most of the pre-match talk focussing on the early morning sonic boom, the boys started the first match looking as if they wanted to play at a pace close to the speed of sound. Throughout all three matches they moved well off the ball, used the wide players (especially when playing out from the back), tackled confidently and accurately and kept the ball moving around the pitch at pace. Everyone of them working hard to support their team mates.

All the boys played at their best but, with Louis Joe reporting unwell in the morning and Cormac unavailable, it was Lawrence stepping up to play in an unfamiliar centre forward role in games 2&3, and having swapped positions with Tom, who drove the Stags forward scoring 5 good goals. Isaac looked unfazed on his team debut and despite a sore thumb, Arthur had some good games in defence along with James and Joshua tackling well and clearing the ball intelligently. They left Elliott with little to do in goal but when required he made some decisive saves to keep two clean sheets; it would have been three but having come out forcefully on a one on one with the Letchworth forward to win the ball, he was not able to get up from the resulting tangle leaving the following Letchworth midfielder an open goal in which to slot the ball. Cheekiest moment of the morning came at the end of the last match; having battled into a good position in front of goal Matthew found his feet in the wrong places but compensated by calmly playing the ball though his legs to score Hertford's final goal.

Results:
Match 1 v Blueharts - Won 2-0 (Tom Weller, William Collier)
Match 2 v Letchworth - Won 3-1 (Lawrence Robinson 2, Tom Weller)
Match 3 v Broxbourne - Won 5-0 (Lawrence Robinson 5, William Collier, Matthew Carter)

Team:
Elliott Mari, Joshua Scott, James Furse, Arthur Davey, Sean Wade-Bond, William Collier, Matthew Carter, Isaac Burns, Ed Chandler, Tom Weller, Lawrence Robinson