Men's 3rd XI: Result of the Season (so far!) at Table-Topping Ely

For all of our good hockey this season, a slightly puzzling, not to say frustrating, statistic is that we had not yet managed to beat one of the top 5 sides. Only one defeat, but a series of draws against the top teams either side of Christmas had left us somewhat off the pace behind Ely and Kettering. Thanks to a series of tactical master-strokes we managed to change all of that this week, with a convincing and thoroughy enjoyable win at Ely, who are as it happens the only side to have beaten us this season.

It all started as usual on Friday night, with the skipper sitting down to work out the formation and a sub rotation plan. Surely it would be straightforward this week, with only 12 of us to organise. I started as usual by sorting us into strikers, midfield and defence, and thus getting an initial idea of our "most natural" formation. Which turned out to be 5-5-0. Jack Charlton may have looked at this formation and wondered if it was quite safe enough, while Alf Ramsey won the World Cup for England with his wingless wonders, but this manager was struggling to convince himself that Nomads' strikerless sensations were going to do the job. So, a few quick strokes of the pen and a couple of glasses of wine and I had convinced myself that Luke, Sydney and me could play up front and that Jim could do a job in midfield instead of at the back. Three of those choices were inspired, and I wonder if you can guess which was the less successful one.

So, cunning plan duly assembled, we all arrived at Ely in good time for the pre-match team talk. As someone once said, no plan survives contact with the enemy, but this one did not make it that far and did not survive contact with Sydney's astros. Unable to locate his old shoes following his recent move back to Cambridge, he was busy making an emergency shopping trip before heading to Ely. Meanwhile, in a move born out of hope rather than experience, I had him up front in the starting XI. A quick rearrangement born out of desperation rather than expectation resulted in me going up front to start with, and off we went.

My Plan B was to run around a bit like I have seen proper forwards doing and try to confuse the opposition until Sydney arrived, then sub off for him and try to work out what to do next. This worked to some extent, but Ely started much the better of the two sides and I honestly don't think I had touched the ball when I did eventually sub for Sydney. However, taking myself off the pitch did turn out to be a stroke of some genius.

We were struggling initially to get our regular game going, and to adapt to the newly laid Ely astro. While a massive improvement on the old one, it was undoubtedly rather slow and we were finding it difficult to move the ball around with our usual zip. Thankfully Ely had not yet played on it much either, and we were gradually able to start coming into the game. Eventually we even started crossing the Ely 23, and finally made it into the D, with Sydney rounding off the move by slotting home from a narrow angle with virtually his first touch on his second Nomads coming. A rather undeserved lead at that point, but one of the features of this team is that we are not proud and will accept any lead going. The game continued in a more even vein after that until half time, even after I took the field once more.

Half time team talk: "Right, who remembers how we used to play on grass?" A few tentative hands were raised by the senior pros, while Zinny and the Davies twins asked "How we used to play on what??" Well, yes kids, once upon a time your forefathers played this great game of ours on grass pitches with wooden sticks and defenders were allowed to pile straight through a forward's arse and get a free hit for obstruction. Ah, them were t'days! Anyway, the point was that this pitch was slower than we were used to and we needed to start playing like it was a very good grass pitch and not an astro. More specifically, it was OK to lump the ball forward if needed, chase after it and pressure defenders into a mistake. Yes, that is how grass hockey used to be played and why the move to artificial pitches was pretty uncontroversial. Anyway, armed with a new master plan involving a lot less fannying about and a lot more getting it forward, we set out to build on our lead.

This approach worked so well that within 5 minutes Ely were back level again. I don't recall too many of the details but it was all a bit messy in our D and culminated in one of the Ely juniors putting the ball into the empty net after several attempts had been blocked. However it happened though, we were left starting over.

Fortunately, our lead was restored fairly quickly following a flowing Nomads move down the right which ended with the skipper rifling home a loose ball for 2-1. Actually, it was one of the weediest shots I have produced in ages, but with the keeper still coming off his line to set himself it seemed like a plan to just get any sort of shot away quickly. Taking great care to top it and thus get some good bobble on it, it dribbled towards the keeper, hit his right instep and dribbled a bit further over the line. Maybe it reached the backboard, maybe not, but what is the difference between apathy and ignorance? I don't know and I don't care. 2-1, and Nomads starting to believe that this could be our day.

The third came from another returnee, the estimable Mr Andrew Woodhead, who rounded off a great performance with a reverse stick shot from the top of the D which went into the opposite bottom corner at no great speed but with clinical precision. 3-1 with about 15 to go, and the belief was surging through Nomads veins now like an English rugby forward through an Irish defence.

Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of this win is that we did not drop back and attempt to keep what we had. We kept committing men forward, and added a fourth 10 minutes from time when from inside our own half we said an emphatic no to fannying about and a resounding yes to lumping it forward, following which Luke and Sydney were on hand to turn the resulting defensive error into a 2 on 1 overload from which Luke slotted home to make it 4-1. Geddin!

We held on without too many alarms after that, though Ely did prove the value of us having continued to press for more goals when they converted a short corner late on. They had a youngster with a very decent drag flick, but his first couple of attempts had been high and Rich had swatted them away for long corners. I always think that high drags look pretty cool, but if you are going to get them past a keeper of Rich's size and ability then you are going to have to get some serious welly behind them and if you can do that then you are probably playing at a higher level than we do. Whether he had come to the same conclusion himself or not I don't know, but this one went low and hard, and though Rich did fantastically well to get down and save it he was unable to direct it to safety and the injector followed up to put in the rebound. So if you are reading this young man, go lower, it is a better percentage option and I am sure it will prove highly effective against our rivals at the top end of the table.

We still had a two goal cushion at this point, and so were able to avoid panicking and closed out the game for a very sweet victory. A few points to pick up on this week, with number one being our work rate and desire to win. We have questioned ourselves in the past, but not this week. Special mention for Luke and Charlie who ran their butts off for us, but not one of us brought anything off the pitch with us. Number two: willingness of people to play out of position and to do what is necessary for the team. Luke and Sydney up front and Jim in midfield in particular. Greatly appreciated by the skipper, particularly when re-working the magic plan on the fly. Three: we adapted our game to an unfamiliar surface very quickly, and particularly after half-time. We spoke about what wasn't working, about what we needed to do to address that, then went out and did it. Excellent! And number four: we kept pushing for more goals even at 3-1 up. It is very tempting to start playing 10m deeper at that point, but we all know that a two goals lead in hockey is nothing and the value of our approach was shown when we conceded that PC out of more or less nothing late on.

So, much to be happy about this week, and nothing I can think of to grumble about really. Roll on the next match!