Match Report
Match Report - 19 Sep 2009, WEST HERTS HOCKEY CLUB Mens 3XI beat Aylesbury 2
A veritable game of two halves this one, played out in difficult conditions on a humid hot autumn day.
We began brightly and the game settled into a flowing pattern and, just as we seemed to be taking the ascendancy Aylesbury scored from their first attack, as our defensive "organisation2 allowed a counterattack that left Zosty no chance.
Alarm bells sounded when a similar move saw the home side net a second.
At the other end we got one back as Rob Gabriel scored the first of his hat-trick, before we succumbed to another two goals before the half time break. We did notch a second via Captain Gough, to keep us in contention, but we had some serious thinking to do as we were not properly organised to deal with the way the "A's"
Determining that we needed to block up a gap in the midfield before it was too late, Bill was moved into a deeper lying central role to free up Sam Moore at sweeper. This move immediately bore fruit as we netted twice in quick succession and won a series of short corners.
Rob rounded off his hat trick and Phil Ratcliff added his second in as many weeks.
The second half was nearly all one way traffic as we cut the home side to ribbons time after time.
Next week the opposition will be stiffer we know, but we have shown that we can play attractive attacking hockey with some new juniors added to the side.
Aylesbury 2 4 - 5 WEST HERTS HOCKEY CLUB Mens 3XI