Boys U14 Essex League

Boys U14 today travelled to Braintree for their Essex League fixture but found Blue Hornets a little too strong and well organised. Despite Cormac Green opening the scoring being well positioned to sweep in a loose ball across the D which the defence failed to pick up, Hornets soon equalised and then began to dominate the first quarter as the Stags showed some lack of experience in playing 11 aside together finishing the first half 4-1 down, the Hornets capitalising on some good penalty corner moves and the inability of the Stags to clear their lines.

With some changes in players and positions in Q2 the Stags settled down and started to defend better as a unit as well and pass ball well in midfield. A much better quarter but still conceding 2 goals from skilful breakaways by the Hornets front line for a 6-1 lead at half time

The third quarter saw the Stags improve again and start to play some very attractive hockey and creating sustained pressure on the Hornets defence with their 'keeper needing to be on his top game to keep the Stags out, however, mid quarter it was Cormac once again who found the back of the net for his third goal of the weekend (having scored his maiden senior goal for Mens 6 on Saturday). 6-2 with one quarter to go.

The final quarter was more end to end both sides attacking on the break. Louis, Sean and Tom all put pressure on the Hornets defence and their keeper had to do some further good work to keep the Stags out whilst at the other end the Hornets benefited form further demonstrations of their slick penalty corner work with 2 further strikes before finishing the match with a tap in from a goal mouth scramble right on the stroke of full time finishing the game 9-2.

Despite the score line this was a tenacious performance by the Hertford boys all of whom worked hard both on and off the ball and kept on fighting to the end which was great to see.

Finally a thank you to Greg Archer who provided a very competent performance in his first competitive match as umpire.

TEAM - Elliott Mari, Arthur Davey, James Furse, Simon Archer, Joshua Scott, Isaac Burns, William Collier, Edward Chandler, Tom Weller, Lawrence Robinson, Matthew Carter, Sean Wade-Bond Cormac Green, Louis Joe Archer,