Men 5th Team vs Yateley 4

The Men’s 5s made the long trek over to Yateley and their decent pitch was graced with beautiful hockey worthy of victory - yet, the hosts triumphed 2-0 with goals against the run of play.

News reached us while we were travelling that David Williams had endured car troubles en route, so our numbers were reduced to 12 but just as we prepared for push back a beacon of hope emerged from the car park. A recognisable figure strolled on to the astro, dusting off his stick from its ten-month hibernation and we were treated to a guest appearance from the legend that is Bill Allen. Brilliant, we were back up to two subs and after a quick reshuffle, which saw Nick Thompson move from centre forward to centre back and super-sub Pete Satchwell promoted to a starting birth up front, we were ready to go. 

The game itself was pretty even in the opening exchanges, but we began to get on top with Yateley unable to deal with our passing game, running off the ball and commitment to the cause.

Goalless at half-time, Colin Merryweather and Joe Shearer-Rust imparted their expert knowledge and we continued to dominate in the second half - we just couldn’t find the back of the net. Yateley, to be fair, defended well and dealt two sucker punches with long range thumps releasing their young quick forwards for goals on the counter.

A tough one to take, however performance-wise we left the pitch happy with how we had played. A tricky one for player of the match, but young Josh Sudbury had a fine game on the left with superb contributions across the whole team.