Mens 4s lose 1-4 to West Bridgford 8s

Having missed out on a game last week the mens 4s got their first taste of league hockey. The game was more even than the result suggested, but being a player short eventually told. The personnel was the usual mix of young, old and me and Jezza, with Bailey making his debut for Derby Asterdale and Richard Jamroz making a return.

Defensively we were pretty solid for most of the game, but only managed flashes of the kind of penetrating passing attacking play we are capable of. We started quite strong, with Josh, Dan and Jezza in particular making up for the missing player. The first goal was one of those flashes half way through the first half, with some neat play between Jezza, Paul Neilson and Bailey with Richard Jamroz and Dan Tucker creating diversions. It was to be Dan running in from the left who picked up the short pass across the D and calmly flicked the ball into the net. This got us celebrating and woke up West Bridgeford, who upped their pace, physicality and started to ware us down. Their first goal came shortly afterwards with a very direct ball through the middle, picked up by the forward, layed back to a midfielder who slotted home. This they repeated again just before the end of the half. Both goals were counter attacks and painfully simple. In between, Derby had another lovelly opportunity with Richard picking out a blisteringly accurate pass for Dan who had to turn sharp to the right and slot the ball home into an empty net. Dan slipped and the ball went wide. 1-2 down at half time.

The second half started in much the same manner with both sides now playing shorter passing hockey (aside from the long balls out of defence which rarely worked), but the Derby midfield tired much quicker this time, the errors crept in and slowly but surely West Bridgford ground us down. Both of their goals in this half were exactly the same as those in the first, with long balls out of defence following the breakdown of our attack and with less than 3 or 4 passes each. 1-4 at full time.

Although it was error strewn all the way through, this was a decent game of hockey. We effectively had two new debutants and it will take time for one of them to grow and mature (Bailey) and for the rest of us to get used to (Richard). There were some delightful passing moves from both sides as well as the inevitable bad tackles. No-ones likes to lose, but all things considered a decent day at the office.

For me, the man of the match was Dan Tucker. Not only did he score a fantastic goal and came so close to scoring an even better one, but he defended as well as anyone else and created a great deal of space for all of the other forwards.

Next week, a friendly with Ashby

Best wishes...Paul Mason