Men's 3rd XI: No Subs, No Problem

The eagle-eyed may have spotted that I didn't play, so credit to stand-in skipper Steve Hodsdon for this report.

By lunchtime on Saturday, we were down the bare bones of a team, and that included Jez who had been celebrating the cricket season the night before. Still, a 4pm start gave him plenty of time to recover (or at least get out of bed). For all that, it was a team with quality all over and a remarkable amount of youth, with half the outfield players being under-18s.

Following urgings from skippers permanent and temporary about not taking 10 minutes to get going, we started at a furious pace, winning the ball all over the park, and usually in the opposition half, denying St Neots a great deal of possession in the first 15 minutes. Going forward, the short, sharp passing of previous weeks was again evident, with good movement wide and around through Julian and Josh, albeit without creating too many chances as one of the packed St Neots defence eventually managed to get a stick in. Eventually, a short corner produced the first shot on target as Jez ("I haven't hit shorts since I was captain and appointed myself to do it") drilled a perfect strike 6 inches off the ground to the keeper's left, only to look thoroughly peeved when the keeper stuck out a leg to deflect it wide!

Unsurprisingly, our pace did drop off and St Neots started to get some possession, but we still managed to keep them largely pinned in their own half. Perhaps we should have let them have the ball earlier as a rare Saints break provided the starting point for the breakthrough. With the defence having snuffed out the danger in our right back area, the ball was rapidly transferred through the midfield to Charlie, who selflessly passed it round the keeper for George to finish. There were several more chances and Jez's personal contest with the opposition keeper continued, with no change to the outcome, and so we went in only 1 to the good, but without the ball having entered our own D.

With halftime warnings all round about how easy it would be to slip up and concede a breakaway, the second half started in a similar manner to the first, with our pace and control pinning St Neots back. A combination of bad luck, last ditch tackles and the continued performance of the opposition goalkeeper meant that the match was still in the balance at 1-0 with 20 minutes to go. Then yours truly applied the maxim of previous games and Pete's advice on shooting against good keepers and topped one on the top of the D. As the keeper panicked at the slowness of the shot and it arrowed between his legs (if you have ever seen me shoot an arrow, the verb is accurate!), Chris nipped in to get a final deflection and guarantee the goal.

With relief all around came some relaxation and some St Neots incursions into our D, but which were ruthlessly and quickly ejected. The game finished with us camped in the opposition 25 and a succession of short corners. Finally, with full time having been blown, and a final short to take, it was apt that Jez finally managed to get the angle to find the backboard half way up and add a deserved third.

From my perspective the positives from the game were our intensity and pace throughout, even knowing that we didn't have any subs. We worked really well at defending from the front and there were numerous occasions when the St Neots right and left backs were in possession with a Nomad (sometimes 2) harrying them (and not committing easy fouls to give them an out). We also did well at cutting out the long balls through. To go through a game of hockey and prevent the opposition from taking a genuine shot at goal is impressive. Our passing was (mostly) crisp and at good pace.

On the downside, we only scored 3 when I think we would all acknowledge that we could easily have had more. Credit must go to the St Neots keeper, but there were occasions when we felt a little "shot-shy" or lacking the nous to put the ball on a foot in the D if nothing else was on. We were also guilty of taking the ball "into contact" with the defenders too much, thus making tackling easier for the opposition.

But in the end, a comfortable 3 points in circumstances which could have been tricky. Onwards and upwards!