As a defender, never pass on assumptions that the intended recipient is where you would expect them to be. Always look, never pass blind. If you don’t look to check, bad things can happen. And did this Saturday.

I wish I was paid as much as that Juve defender to play… Anyway.

For 35 minutes this game went well for the M5s. We were working hard, showing for each other, and even trying the novel concept of using the things we worked on in training in midweek in the game on a Saturday. Yeah, weird, I know. It’s something the improved attendance facilitates and in time we will benefit from it. In time…[/reverie]

The match reached half-time scoreless, which was a moral victory for the 5ths at that point. Yes, we had survived a number of penalty corners, and yes, Joe L in the 4ths goal had had significantly less work to do than Jo D in ours. But it was all square, which was great. The half-time teamtalk was mostly encouraging, with Dan IF (currently out injured so taking an armchair general brief) noting that the M4s were clearly panicking, and emphasising we were better than them and needed to say it and believe it.

The problem for the M5s was the M4s were also having a teamtalk, and their also identified good points to improve on. Such as passing around our defenders rather than trying to beat us as individuals. One minute into the second half this had worked from a penalty corner and the 4ths were 1-0 up. That calmed them down, when our hopes were mostly about getting them more wound up (props to Pipes for achieving this anyway!).

The goal forced the 5ths to throw more men forwards. This exposed us to counter-attacks. A second followed swiftly on from the first and was well worked though the retreating 5ths players gave a helping hand with a costly fractional hesitation when chasing back. And 10 minutes from time another good use of the 4ths pace up front and the selfless 1-2’s that were absent before the break meant it was three.

The 5ths still believed they could get something from the game. Inside the last two minutes a rare penalty corner was won (the overall count must have been something like 15-5 for the game), and Nev took aim for the bottom corner. Strike – very crisp. Accuracy – only fractionally out… but fractionally out in the wrong direction as the ball flashed just outside rather than just inside the post. To compound matters, the 4ths got the game back underway quickly and swept up field to mean the fourth goal was theirs rather than ours.

For 35 minutes we thought an upset was on. But it wasn’t. It really shouldn’t be when it’s the 5ths vs the 4ths, so it’s one we can put behind us and move on. Not that things get particularly easier as next week sends us to the early season pace-setters Ely 2nds, who have won two from two and are yet to concede a goal. There’s an aim, then.