Men’s 3rd XI End of Season Report 2008/2009

Chris Sat May 09, 2009 2:11 pm

Men’s 3rd XI End of Season Report 2008/2009

The season really started for us with the summer indoor league at Mackworth College. It was a big learning curve but we certainly improved vastly over the summer. The highlight was beating our own indoor 1st team and Chestnuts straight afterwards in our final games.

Going into September and the pre-season friendlies the indoor hockey had given us a fitness advantage as we enjoyed a five game winning streak. As is normal at the beginning of a season, there were often many different faces in the team. However the turning point for the team was loosing two games in succession against Leamington and Leicester Westleigh. Up until that point we had been able to dominate our oppositions, playing a more attacking style of hockey.

Going into our 4th league game, after a week off, we were only lying in 5th place on 9 points. A change in formation lead to a more patient playing style that took us to 13 wins in succession and promotion. The team would often start the matches by stabilising the defence, working out whom each of us should be marking, before making any serious inroads on the opposition’s goal mouth.

Unfortunately we did not achieve league victory in the end. However considering the 2 losses early in the season we did well to come back and lead up until the very last match. Unfortunately we lost our penultimate game in the dying minutes against Tamworth. And in the final weekend we were unlucky in that our opposition did not turn up and South Notts won the league on goal difference. But I don’t want to concentrate on what could have been. In the end we were the only team that beat every other team in the league. And I believe that our experiences will stand us in good stead next season in the league above.

So what may you ask did the team learn from this season? Well the team learnt that wins don’t always come easily and patience is a virtue. They learnt that complaining to umpires only waists time that could be otherwise used trying to get the ball back. By the time you’ve stopped ‘debating’ the finer points of the rule book with the umpire, your opposition have strolled up to the other end of the pitch and are about to score. Lastly we learnt that winning teams don’t just attack as a team; they defend as a team. If the opposition managed to break we would often try to delay making a tackle until we had enough people back to cover. In the first half of the season we let in 15 goals, but in the second half we only let in four and had five clean sheets in a row.

For me it’s been a fantastic season and I’ve fully enjoyed the opportunity to lead this team. The team spirit has been fantastic. For the last couple of seasons the team spirit has been good, but it just grew even further this season. More and more players have been coming to the pub after games and by the end of the season my biggest selection problem was that I had too many players wanting to play for the 3rds. The only reservation I have is that unfortunately we won’t get to play Sikh Union Coventry next season who have been fantastic hosts and have great curries.

On to the matter of player of the season, many players have done a brilliant job. It’s been great to have Sam Taylor and Jez Sear back in the midfield. Sundeep Mann up front has scored plenty of goals and did very well at holding the ball up the field. The defence has been amazing. As ever Ian McWilliams has stood out as our best defensive midfielder and without doubt Darren Howard has been our most improved player. However when put to the vote there was only one man that appeared in everyone’s top 3 and that was Dave Green. Dave has been brilliant at right mid, in attacking and defending, and scored 9 goals throughout the season.

Before I finish I’d just like to thank some people for their help this season. Firstly I’d like to thank our Indoor captain Pete Chesney for running our indoor team over the summer. Pete was rather unfairly duped into organising it but did a very good job. Secondly I’d like to thank John Mann for running the team whilst I swanned off on a skiing holiday for a week. I’d also like to thank our regular goal keepers who have been brilliant. Seb Flint, Nick Boulton and Tom Vernon have each performed fantastically this season. Lastly I’d like to thank our fixtures secretary, Bob Rogerson, and all the umpires who have umpired our games this season. Without them we wouldn’t have had any games at all.

League Stat’s
League position: 2nd
Games won: 17
Games lost: 3
Goals scored: 75
Goals conceded: 19