Men's 4XI vs Spencer Titans

Hi everyone,

A conflicted match report this time round. Having put up one of the most disciplined and resilient performances I can remember, it seems a shame that we came away from the game without anything to show for it. 70 minutes of hard running, some incredible tackling, and absorbing serious amounts of pressure eventually took its toll, and we couldn’t quite get over the line. But compared to the 0-2 reverse we suffered at OKs, this couldn’t have been any more different. 

Knowing that we were up against a young, posh, graduate-style team, we had to be aware of their pace, their overlapping style, and their ability to run into space. The gameplan was to absorb that, let them play around but outside of the D, and then absolutey sell out for the man-marking in the middle of the pitch. It took us five frantic minutes to fully grasp the assignment in hand, but for the rest of the first half we closed them down, marked shoulder to shoulder, and gradually shifted the pressure onto them to make something happen. It was a fantastic display of patient, disruptive and defensive hockey. 0-0 at half time must have felt like defeat for Spencer. 

And during that first half we did manage a couple of breakaways ourselves. Two half chances for us versus some wild shooting and one off the post for them. 0-0 seemed kind of fair. Yes, we allowed them tonnes of possession. Okay, we didn’t offer a whole lot in the way of creative hockey or ball retention. But fundamentally that was always the plan. Allow them space down the flanks but make the centre so congested there’s nowhere for them to go. We did it so well that by half time you could tell they were getting really frustrated. Clearly their gameplan wasn’t going the way they wanted it to, despite dominating time of possession. Our marking and tackling was absolutely equal to their playmaking. 

But it was always going to be tough to ride that gameplan out for another 35 minutes. Both sides started to make unforced errors as the attrition ramped up. A couple of very unfortunate breakaways did leave us exposed to one on ones. By and large the Spencer shooting had been abysmal, but they got extremely lucky with a couple of deflections off the keeper, and were able to tuck two pretty soft goals away. Aside from those moments, we had looked solid, even under extreme pressure. The longer the game went on the harder it became for the oppo to visualise how they were going to score. 

Weirdly, once they did score, they completely took their foot off the pedal, in my view very prematurely. Perhaps exhausted from the effort to get in front, and perhaps out of sheer relief that they finally managed to score a goal, they sat back and the game opened up. Frustratingly we weren’t really able to carve out a whole bunch of clear cut chances, despite our forwards running gamely, and the final ball wasn’t quite there for us. It was always going to be difficult to get back on terms, but by the end of the game Spencer were all out of ideas and counting down the minutes. I’d be surprised if they face an oppo which is harder to break down than we were in this game. 

Jonno

An absolute masterclass in tackling players who clearly expected to be able to get round him easily. I lost count of how many times a promising break for them blew up down the flanks because Jonno was there with a big beard and a staff bellowing “You shall not pass!”. His passes up the line weren’t always there today as Spencer worked deliberately hard to break up moves parallel to the touchlines, and were on us pretty quickly when we played round the back, too. But massive kudos to Jonners for making life so difficult for them whenever they thought they had a big play brewing. 

Farmer

Reassuringly chunky game from our resident agrarian centre back, including two literal goal saving steals on the edge of the D, the sort of heartbreaking play which frustrated the oppo so much that it got their heads dropping a little bit. Taking things a little easy as he comes back from injury, Dave was involved in a couple of miscues around the back three that put us under a bit of unnecessary pressure, but the discipline and concentration he showed in the game more than made up for that, and brought us really close to that magic clean sheet. Might want to get his hearing checked out, claiming that he couldn’t hear Molly shouting inordinately loudly (even for him) from the sidelines: “Dave Farmer. That’s David Farmer. Two minutes!”

Maj

Accomplished showing in a game which asked a lot of him. Ready on time with, incredibly, no trouser-related delays, Maj was warmed up and ready to go right from the off. The Monster Maj is best when he’s playing a yard off the oppo winger and able to jab his stick in or lay it flat. This worked several times on both sides of the pitch, and he never really let his man get underneath him. Error free with an additional B- for his passing, this was exactly the kind of performance we needed against players so young they hadn’t been born the last time Maj had hair. 

Molly

Pretty solid affair from the man whose Oasis hoodie betrays the last time he was remotely cool. Aggressive in the tackle and disciplined in his marking, Molly made life for Spencer forwards more unbearable than an album track off Be Here Now. Passing was the usual mixture of Olympic standard and back-to-hockey standard, so the jury’s out on how effective he was as a playmaker: I think in this game possession and certainty might have been the priorities, although I do understand that if one of those throughballs comes off and we go 1-0 up, none of us can ever say anything critical again. 

Pringle

Had a huge task to do, cutting off Spencer plays through the middle of the park, and almost without fail he at least got to the ball and put the oppo guys under pressure. Pringy was responsible for some really effective tackling, the usual endless tracking back, and playing as the heart beat of the team (autocorrect just changed that to “great beast”. Maybe I should have kept that in). Doing all that is not easy, especially with no bench, and he didn’t stop all game. Apart from when their midfielder sent him into orbit on the 30 minute mark. And having witnessed that, I tell you what, readers, Pringle has SOME MOMENTUM. 

Duncs

The lad has the calmness of a man who once lived on Merseyside and doesn’t anymore. Chilled, carefree and happy in his midfield mastery, Dave was the player who kept us relaxed by keeping hold of the ball patiently, and rolling it around while Spencer dropped off us into their own half. Responsible for about 73% of our total possession, Dave kept things ticking over all game. And NO ONE is picking our kid’s pocket, however posh and floppy-haired they might be. 

Jack A

A difficult game for Jacko to really get into as a naturally attacking player, but he nevertheless managed to have yet another pretty flawless game. Coming back to do his fair share of marking and disrupting, offering us width when we did turn over possession, and running at defenders who didn’t like it up ‘em at all, Jack managed to put together a complete performance. There were times when he was wide open with space to run into towards goal, but frustratingly we couldn’t quite get the ball to him accurately enough. But you couldn’t really ask much more of him. Except maybe an up-to-date Epsom shirt. 

Morgs

Another strong performance, giving us a mixture of blood & guts defending and some of the more fluid dribbling we seen in this side. Asked to play a multi-tool role across the whole midfield, Jack stuck to his tasks competently and confidently. Comfortable playing in the screen, behind the front two, or out wide, Morgs is getting to grips with this league more and more each week, showing us a swashbuckling style that matches his uniquely pirate-esque facial hair arrangement. Next job to tick off: scoring a goal. 

Charlie

Had himself a game more solid than a particularly dense lump of iron ore, Charlie absolutely held his own against an equally solid (if more namby-pambily coiffured) Spencer side. He worked genuinely hard up the right hand side, offering us a reliable outlet, and controlled passes which came his way with confidence and skill. Running up and down those flanks, and getting involved in close combat against that kind of oppo will give him good insight into what university hockey will be like, and on this showing I reckon he’ll do just fine. 

David

Tireless but thankless performance from the Davester up top. He pinned their sweeper very deep which pulled the whole Spencer side back. This meant they gave us lots of room to run at them, and although we didn’t always make the most of their generosity, it did suggest that they were worried about us breaking on them. On the occasions we did it was generally David beating five men in a row on one of his trademark slalom runs which set up the few opportunities we had. V close to getting MoM. 

Ludders

Same story for Ludders, really. Plenty of running, plenty of closing down, plenty of desire, but probably not enough of the ball to really shift the dial for us. It’s hard to stay mobile and maintain diverting runs when you’re really the only striker on the pitch, and you know you’re going to have to do it for an hour and a bit. But credit to Ludders he did his best to give us options with the possession we had. Had a couple of half chances which could have changed the complexion of the game, but couldn’t quite get in the right positions. Loses points for looking and sounding like a typical Spencer player - posh, bofty hair, irritatingly good at sport etc. 

Spike

Had a good game. Picked a decent side. Apparently this is all you need to do these days to get Man of the Match. So congratulations, I guess. 

So on we go. Results-wise we’re still consistently inconsistent: generally good at home, generally not quite good enough away; and so we’re find ourselves in mid table with 7 wins and 7 losses. I really did think we might find a way to come out of this match with a 0-0 or 1-1 draw. We worked really hard and looked more and more secure as the game went on. Unfortunately we needed to be absolutely perfect, and we couldn’t quite get there. 

What we CAN do though is maintain that level of discipline and concentration when we’re defending - for the rest of the season. As a hockey team step one is always to make yourselves very difficult to beat. I feel we’re getting close to that. And once you get that embedded - getting goal side, developing expertise in tackling and man marking, being confident on the ball when you’re under pressure and backed up in your own D - then you can start to build a really solid platform to play out from. This team has really grown as the season’s gone on, and we’re now at stage where it feels like we’re well prepared when we have to hang with big boys. Now we just need to go out and prove it. 

Spike