Mens 1st XI get back to winning ways

After last weeks poor performance against Wellingborough the last fixture Derby needed was the long trip to a resurgent Buxton, who from a poor start had lost only 1 of the last 5 games.

With a full squad available coach Taylor certainly had the team fired up and made several positional changes in order to play the style of Hockey required to get a result today.

From the outset Derby pushed Buxton back with the front pairing of Nick and Neil causing all sorts of problems with their pace and it was from a run by Nick that found the Buxton centre back having to foul him inside the ‘D’ to give Derby their 1st penalty corner of the day.

Up stepped Dave Ellis to continue his remarkable run of goals against Buxton (11 in the last 5 meetings) and crash in an unstoppable shot to give Derby a deserved lead at 1-0.

The rest of the 1st half saw a very scrappy affair with the pitch not helping at all. To say this was an Astroturf surface at times it played almost like grass with its uneven bounce causing so many mistakes.

The 2nd period saw Derby able to continue to make changes in personnel but the goals just would not come with several chances going astray, even at one stage a quite brilliant run from left back on the blind side saw Ross dive at the back post just failing to connect with a cross from Will Lanoe that would have ended a superb movement.

Buxton did force Derby onto the back foot late on but captain Andy Knight was outstanding at centre back continually snuffing out any real threat Buxton had.

Final score Buxton 0 – 1 Derby Asterdale.

Comment from the coach:

In the changing rooms before the game I made it quite clear what was expected from every member of this squad today (it wasn’t a talk for the faint of heart!!) and all stepped up to the mark admirably.

The team spirit appears to be back and the volume of support on the pitch was excellent. We do need to pick up on our finishing though in order to put teams like this away with a bit more ease than we did today.

I thought that Captain Andy Knights’ performance today was superb; he totally dominated the back line and swept at times with what appeared to be consummate ease. His Captaincy was excellent and his motivation and reading of the game almost faultless. Great performance.

We now find ourselves in 3rd place just 3 pts from the top in an incredibly tight league and look forward to the visit of Corby next Saturday to Wilsthorpe.