The late, great Babe Ruth once said, ‘The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.’ Never has a truer word been said than about the M1s for the 2020/21 season, a team built on a collective desire, commitment and hard work (sprinkled with a touch of magic).

On Saturday we travelled to Bury for a mid-table match against one of our familiar foes. The sun was shining, the pitch was slick and the mood was buoyant. With credit to Bury, the opposition starter brighter, attacking with pace and fluency, creating opportunities and scoring two goals from a short corner and penalty flick.

Two-nil down, away from home playing against a high quality team in Division 1; a tough ask but this M1s team is a different beast. Built upon an MDads defence, with a fast and loose MLads midfield and forward line, the team embraced the challenge and outplayed Bury in the second half. The pace quickened; high on tempo and quality, South pulled a goal back with eight minutes to go and continued to drive forward, creating half chances for Pearson (one in a hundred), Bailey with a tough reverse and winning short corners. Despite throwing everything (and when the two CBs are both in the opposition D in open play, that really is everything) South ran out of time. Defeated, deflated and disappointed but collectively enormously proud of how we had performed and how far we have come.

With four games to go the M1s find themselves in sixth, still in control of their own destiny and playing a standard of hockey that we could only aspire to eighteen months ago - The way a team plays as a whole determines its success.

Finally, congratulations to our counterparts, the Ladiesrsquo; 1s, who deservedly celebrated their promotion following victory on Saturday – very well deserved.