After 173 days, a global pandemic, a lot of freshly baked bread, many chats about gardening and some gruelling runs over a bridge, hockey was back.

Two big wins against our local rivals in the league last year and now under the floodlights at Wilby Road. The scene was set for a classic despite this being a friendly.

The game started off well at a good pace, with both teams trying to assert dominance early on. Neither team were really able to make any good chances as a few stray passes and misstraps from both sides exposed the rust that had developed over lockdown. That was until a momentary lapse in concentration left a City player free at the top of the D, who took the opportunity to put City ahead with the help of the inside of the post.

Going into half time 1-0 down it was all to play for in the second half. A good start from either side could change the game.

Unfortunately for us that turned out to be City. A full press onto our defence from the off piled on the pressure and managed to force a couple of mistakes from our 16s before they took their chance. An excellent aerial that flew through the air...
"I must've lost sight of the ball so cant be certain how far it actually went"
…was picked expertly by the City forward who proceeded to beat everyone before putting it into the back of the net.

City scored again (quite a nice goal to be fair to them). We came back into the game and made some really good chances towards the end, which on another day we would’ve buried. That did leave us a bit stretched and a breakaway led to a P-flick. Luckily Daz won the mind games with their attacker, who proceeded to send the ball into orbit.

All in all a difficult result to start with but definitely some positives to take away from the game, particularly from the new boys, Tim and Ed, who both had quality games.