Chilly Hockey on a Chilly Evening!

From Match Day Reporter Geoff Low:

After a very successful 3 games in a row, on a brusk Saturday afternoon the RPHC Pilgrims faced the double challenge of Farnham/Aldershot and a circadian rhythm threatening 4:15 pushback.

It was dark before we started and the white match ball didn’t last much more than about 5 minutes before being shown the red card for it’s orange equivalent. It was a cold evening and we were caught playing some distinctly cold hockey for the first ten minutes, barely able to string a series of passes together. Unfortunately the opposition were not quite so cold off the mark, notching up two goals in short order - so 10m in we were 2-0 down. Fortunately our super sub Adrian came on to augment the stability at the back and hold off the attacks for the remainder of the first half. We had opportunities, with Harry and Richard doing some excellent work in the middle and Adam had some brilliant runs (at one point our centre back was charging into the opposition circle) along with some solid defending. Howard provided his usual quality ball control in the middle, and had some strong probing runs.

A strong talking to was delivered at the break and in the second half it pushed us further up the field, but unfortunately on the breakaway the opposition were too strong with some division busting stick skills in evidence. Adam was assigned the task of marking one of the principle stick wizards out of the game which helped. Dave, Ken and Adrian worked well together at the back with some blinding tackles taking place, but unfortunately we just couldn’t keep them out. Another two goals were forthcoming for Farnham and Aldershot, which were unfortunately unmatched from a determined RPHC, leaving us without score at the end of play.

Dave was a well-deserved man of the match, keeping strong under numerous probing attacks. We’ve certainly got some things to work on, here’s to the better time and home game next week leading to a more acceptable outcome.