Ely City 2s have a history of being a formidable team from the upper echelons of league hockey. Lately, however, they have had an unfortunate spot of bad luck. They might have thought that the newly formed M5s would be a walkover, but they would have been wrong.

Volunteer goalkeeper, Pete Dreuitt, practices being in goal while man- and captain-of-the-match, Alan "The Rock" Radford split the players into attack, midfield, and defence, encouraging each group to sort substitutions. Once sorted, the orders came loud and clear: play so hard that no other physical task could be accomplished after the game. And so we did.

South started strong, keeping majority possession of the ball for the first fifteen minutes. Attack and midfield partnered together in some great hockey. South broke through fast and broke through often, having a number of chances in the D, but unfortunately were unable to convert. South’s defence at this stage had little to do.

We were awarded a short corner. Shahbaz lined up as usual but, unfortunately, the opposition players managed to block the ball before he could attempt his drag-flick.

Adrian Granger Brown, Peter Creed, Shahbaz Ali, Sebastian Dias, Andi Caddy, Rupert Espley and newcomer (and runner up MoM) Jimmy Wood, ran around Ely’s players at a furious pace. Jimmy, especially, found himself space playing on the left, hassled the opposition players for the ball and made some great passes towards waiting South attackers.

Ely find their feet. Their forwards break through and position themselves for ball reception within the South D. A wild ball comes-a-bouncing. No-one is able to stop it; not the opposition, and not even our awesome goalkeeper who tries his best to slap the ball to the ground…straight into mid-net. One-nil to Ely.

Newly invigorated, Ely push through to the South defence with more confidence but The Rock does his thing - always positions himself directly in the path of the oncoming offence and stops the ball dead almost every time; while David Bridge, Nick Georgiadis and James Piper do an amazing job of picking up and blocking off any stragglers in the D.

Ball possession looks about equal. Ely win a short but it is easily cleared by South. Half time.

The second half is similar to the first half, except Ely have fewer chances on goal. An opposition player sweeps the ball fast across the ground from outside the D while Pete Dreuitt positions himself perfectly to deflect the ball if needed.One opposition player breaks through into the South D and just manages to get his stick on to the ground for a deflection upwards into the South net. An unfortunate occurrence, and from the loud cry from the scoring player, one which even he seems surprised by. Two-nil to Ely.

South make a fantastic breakthrough on the right and a fast sniping cross is made to Shahbaz, who is standing in the perfect position for an easy sweep into the wide open opposition goal. Unfortunately, the ball slides under his stick. Shahbaz hangs his head in disbelief as he feels robbed of an opportunity - we all feel his pain.

The last ten minutes saw South again take major possession of the ball and fight furiously for chances towards the D, and we get them. Unfortunately, we are unable to convert before the final whistle.

A game that South fought with tremendous energy and spirit. As per the Rock's instruction, we are spent. Although disappointed in the loss, we feel that we held our own against Ely's stronger team, doing the best that we could. In that we were successful.

Match tea pizzas are welcome and are devoured down with great satisfaction as we take comfort in the fact that South M4s play Ely 3 in the afternoon, in which South should be expected to do better.

P.S. The author's significant other is unhappy that The Rock ensured he could not perform any DIY for the rest of the weekend.
P.P.S. The author is grateful to The Rock for ensuring that he cannot perform any DIY for the rest of the weekend.