Men's 3rd's v North Nots 3rd's, 05/01/2008

In a friendly vs a strong North Notts side, the men's 3rds team managed highlight their Christmas excess with a 6-0 loss.

From the start we knew that it was going to be a challenge as they are a league above us and in line for promotion. Add to that the fact that they had 2nd's players to call on as their match had been cancelled, then it was always going to be a struggle.

The match was preceded by a minutes silence in respect for Ken Marsh, one of the founder member of North Notts, who died on Christmas Eve after a long fight against ill health. Whilst both teams stood quietly around the centre circle I realised that they had 18 players in their squad and knew that this match would be a steep learning curve.

From the start Derby struggled to shake of the cobwebs and were 4-0 down by half time. Often our players would loose the ball and would fail to chase down their opponent. Our cause was not helped by some poor umpiring at times. I'm still astonished that an umpire can observe a slide tackle 5m in front of his nose and let it go. But to be fair to the North Notts side, there didn't appear to be any intentional fouls and in general played fairly. They also played exceedingly well always putting a lot of pressure on a our 16 yard hits and almost always managed to take their 16's before our players could get anywhere near them.

At the end of the game it was difficult to say which side had got more out of the game. North Notts came away with an easy 6-0 win, but I'm pretty sure that we learnt more from the experience than they did. I'm not sure a man of the match award is appropriate for this week given the result, but particular credit should go to Dave Steadman and Paul Webb. Steaders put in some fantastic passing moves and managed to worry the opposition with some of his skills. Paul Webb made some fantastic saves during the match which earnt him praise from several of the North Notts players.