Oxton skittled for 9

So we will begin with a positive, we bought a decent match ball but the immediate negative is that it was last seen disappearing into the trees from a PCA save and JD was not willing to fight the rats for it behind the cemetery. The coach is rumoured to be selling his other kidney to fund a second match ball for the next home game.

Onto the match and the squad is starting to look like they have potential. With a large number of people injured and a couple of late withdrawals the squad of 14 were driven hard to take advantage of an inexperienced Oxton team. It gave the chance to develop some patterns of play in attack with a rotating back 3,4 or 5 covering for the rampaging defence who looked to push into midfield. The first half highlighted the amount of work to be done working on the press in our first line of defence and on how we enter the circle and finish. Penalty corners showed progression from midweek practice and looked a threat but some more work to go into the set pieces.

A pleasing aspect was the senior players taking their time to encourage the younger players and to provide guidance on how to play differing patterns and it was encouraging to see the lads taking on the input and putting it into practice. Johnson was the latest player to wear the armband as we continue with our rotation policy of sharing the honour. No one wants to be the first one too lose

. The goals flowed steadily with a couple of hat-tricks up for grabs, but it was good to see the goals coming from differing quarters with 2 out of the 4 defenders, and it was nearly 3 out of 4 but for Tall Jones pinching the ball 300mm from the line. Goal of the match would have been Robbo for his great deflection and we could have scored more but for the Oxton keeper pulling off some good saves including a worldie double save. Thanks to Steve for helping with the management on the day and to Brynn who continues his hockey education by learning to be a TD for the match

. Goals, Varabi 2, Anton -2 , Johnson, Dudley, Jones W, Quibell, Weston

Next week could see the return of Andrews, Cooke and Siddy to the squad for a tough trip to Windemere. Competition for places is beginning hot up