This was supposed to be M3s' last scheduled match of 2016, before a game got re-arranged to the slip date. It was also our only meeting of the season with Ely 2nds, after the first one got awarded in our favour. Brilliant availability (on the player side at least) saw us able to field a full squad of sixteen for the game. And a strong one, too. Ely, by contrast, have been struggling this season with numbers (see above) and sit bottom of the table.

We scored twice in the opening exchanges. The opener was a debut goal for the club from Jonny, seizing on the ball as it ran away from Rob’s stick and slap-sweeping home with alacrity. That came in the fourth minute and by the eighth it was two, Rob deflecting home neatly from a typical Monckosaurus crunch into the circle. It had all seemed very straightforward to this stage, but unfortunately we were too ready to believe it was going to be easy and our play lost its sharpness for the rest of the half.

Ely came more into the game from about twenty minutes onwards and, as the crowd noted, they were playing the better team hockey by half-time. This culminated in them pulling a goal back around ten minutes into the second half, shoddy marking allowing a player to waltz unopposed to the top of the circle and fire a good shot into far corner.

What happened next was the decisive moment of the game. If it had stayed 2-1 for long, we could have panicked about throwing away a win that should have had dead and buried ages before. However, pretty well straight from push-back, skipper-for-the-day Ed drove at the right side of the Ely defence. A couple of jinks took him into the circle before a rebound off the keeper presented the ball back to him to walk into the goal.

One could almost see the belief evaporate from the away side when this happened. Their attacks essentially stopped and it simply became a question of how many we could muster. The fourth was neatly done, Max working the ball up to Simon. Si’s first touch was either a bit heavy or a masterly piece of deception, as it drew the keeper forward which allowed Max to slip it under him as he advanced.

The final goal came from a short, and was credit to both the scorer and to coach Colin. His half-time advice to our recent dinosaur was that the full-pitched bellow was possibly less effective than a precisely deployed 80% strength roar. This would have power enough to do its job, but would incorporate greater control. The ball thumping accurately into the far corner seemed to back this stance up.

Evening brought with it rumours that other results had gone our way and we were back to the top of 5NW, and certain to stay atop the tree until after all the other decorations have come down. We even have a chance to extend our advantage next week with a second go at playing the Peterborough 8ths away game. And then the Christmas Party in the evening. Bring it!