After a triumphant win over Bishop Stortford last week, the Men's 6s were eager to win another match. Not only this but we had 3 new players making their first debut for the club. GM at left mid, Harry Warner in right back and JL in goal. Following a brief warm-up and a 2 minute silence to pay respect to the late Queen Liz, the match began, with the first few minutes seeming encouraging as we pushed up the pitch. But Bury St Edmunds M7s turned out to be a trick to the eye, as they may have looked elderly, but they could play hockey well. This seemed like it would be a surprising match for South, with Bury already slotting a few goals past us. Things didn’t look to be turning out the way we wanted in the first half.

Nevertheless we stuck to the basics, with lots of simple but effective passing around the back, especially from GM and Harry, but the formation of 4-3-3 did not seem to be working for us. So after a quick change to the usual formation of 4-4-2 the 6s carried on to the second half, not knowing the long list of interesting events about to occur. To start with Joe Dant decided to come on as he couldn’t bear to watch and not do anything, even with no shin pads! James Yu also performed a dramatic slip that ultimately injured him and he had to get off the pitch, a possible lemon of the match.

But the game started to change after a spectacular save from JL, an aerial that was punched out of the D with such ferocity! A chance for a goal also appeared with an amazing run by Kieran Birch dribbling and spinning around so many defenders you couldn’t keep track! This led to a reverse sweep into the D by him with Rob Barton lying in wait to pounce on this chance and lift the ball high above the goalkeeper. Bury seemed to be in shock because almost straight after Joe D was already miles up the pitch with Rob once again in the perfect position to side smash the ball into the back of the net. Unfortunately this wake up call for Bury switched them on again and they held their ground, even with the ever confident M6s passing around them and Henry Greene making some great runs to try to increase our goal count. South's defence also continued to stand strong with Sean Gardiner blocking Bury’s chances and clearing the ball with some powerful smashes.

However the match ended 4-2 to Bury St Edmunds and seemed a surprise to both teams with the level of play that occurred. MoM going to Kieran for brilliant hockey and a goal assist, with runner up JL for some fantastic saves. LoM went to Rob due to not getting a hatrick again.