Patience is the key! We dominated a game against an equally young Broxbourne side (we had 10 U13s this week) but just couldn't unpick their determined defence and get a shot past their outstanding keeper. Alex got us ahead mid way through the first half, but with 20 minutes gone in the second we were no further ahead. Broxbourne had some good periods of pressure in the first half but by then it was one way traffic towards the Broxbourne goal, but with the home side threatening occasionally on the break. Francisco finally made the breakthrough to ease our nerves (our 4th youth player to score on debut this season), Alex then added two more (one a penalty) as we took the game to safety in the last 10 minutes.

What went right? We didn't panic, we kept trying to play creative hockey and looking patiently for solutions. There was the occasionally solo dribble in the final 20 metres, but there was far more patient, unselfish short passing and moving off the ball around and in the D until it finally clicked into place.

If Alex got the goals, the praise has to go to the whole midfield/forward unit. Early passes, good use of width right down the pitch, taking free hits quickly and (after a few reminders) turning quickly and tracking back when we lost the ball. Good to have Tom Rippon and Henry back in the side this week, but the real coup was getting our old pal Stan Power back onto a hockey field for the first time in 5 years after getting his hips done. It's all about patience! He and Ben gave us the touch of call we needed at the back of midfield. We hope to see more of him.

Final thanks to Mike and Aaron for guesting from the 6s this week, and to everyone who made the 16 man substitution rota run like clockwork.