Men's 4XI vs Teddington Oaks

Hi all,

Well that turned into a bit of a shootout in the end didn’t it? 11 goals, plenty more chances, and a boatload of decent hockey big enough to get stuck in the Suez Canal. Not necessarily one for the defensive purist, but who doesn’t love watching two evenly matched teams going hammer and tongs at one another for seventy minutes? It was kind of a shame either side had to lose. Although I guess it could have been a draw. But you know what I mean. 

We had a nightmare start. 2-0 down inside three minutes thanks to a jammy goal and a shorty which squeezed under Maj’s stick. This game can probably be summed up by the fact that we were on even terms less than five minutes later, after outstanding work - as there was all game - from Loz and Ludders, a latter day Owen and Fowler up front, with Molly notching his first goal for the club adding an additional Heskey-esque element to the mix. 

Slipping behind, quite literally (how skiddy was the pitch?) actually brought out the best in us, and we dominated the rest of the first half. We got back on terms with the goal of the game (props to Ludders), and bravely survived four short corners in a row in stoppage time. I thought that might be a turning point, going in 3-3 at the break, allowing us to regroup and continue our dominance. 

And in fact we took the lead five minutes after the restart, and were looking by far the better side. Genuinely brilliant work from Davey, Charlie and Jack kept the Teddies pinned in their own half, just as we’d been able to do before half time. But we did begging to fade. Annoyingly this coincided with Teddington bringing their baldies back on in midfield, who were decent, and they leapt on loose passes and broke through our somewhat makeshift screen maybe half a dozen times or more, getting round the back and outnumbering us at the top of the D. As is customary this season our tiredness began to take its toll, and despite keeping them out three or four times, they were able to pass around us and into the goal three times in quick succession for a 6-4 lead. 

But back we came again. Loz was pulling their left back’s pants down every time he ran at him. Davey Lee had a game for the ages and got us back in it with a few minutes to go. You can’t help but think that if we’d just made a bit more of our five or six short corners we could have had this match buried by a comfortable margin. As it was we just ran out of time, unable to keep possession quite as tightly as you would like in the last few minutes, and falling short in a game which we easily could have won, but for our calamitous start, and that seven minute spell they had three quarters of the way through the game. 

We played some nice stuff, though. We tackled hard and stole the ball effectively, and there were sustained periods of the game where Teddington simply couldn’t get out of their half, so suffocating was our workrate and tenacity. So it was a real shame that we couldn’t quite contain them on the counter, because our attacking play was among the best we’ve seen this season. Teddies are second in the table for a reason, and we came tantalisingly close to knocking them off their perch. Eliminate maybe four missteps and we come away with three points here. 

Spike

Skipper chose the wrong day to wear his Winter Olympics special edition ice skates, as he slipped and slid around like an uncoordinated penguin. A couple of boneheaded decisions didn’t help, and although he kept a few chances out, this was a match which required a flawless display. Which, alas, was not forthcoming. Not all of Teddington’s methods up front were entirely in the spirit of the game, but you simply can’t waste a five goal performance by letting in that many. 

Jonno

Some of Jonno’s defending is textbook, it’s just a shame his pace was last evident at the time of the Domesday book. It’s extremely hard to produce a flawless performance: Jonners came pretty close but for the need to step off players a little bit so that when (and let’s face it, it is when rather than if) we turn the ball over, the oppo forward can’t steal a yard or two on you. A real shame that, for want of another substitute or two to keep us fresh, that five minute period in the second half blotted an otherwise neat and tidy copy book. 

Maj

Same goes for our Majic left back. A pity that an otherwise controlled and aggressive game, getting the better of that primary school kid on the wing, including some great tackling and sensible-headed hockey, was undone by two hospital balls of such enormity you could call them an A&E department and eliminate the NHS’s waiting lists overnight. We’ll call this one a ‘nearly’ game. Maj nearly stayed inside the post for that shorty; he nearly passed into safety for the whole game; and he nearly stopped a pass across the D which resulted in a Teddy goal. But we all the agree the lad continues to improve, so the good news is he should be hitting full stride just as the season comes to a close!

Farmer

The main win for Dave is that he didn’t twang something in his nether regions and hobble off after eight minutes like usual, but instead he put himself about a bit in the middle, gobbling up loose passes and stray balls as if they were side dishes at an all-you-can-eat Sunday carvery. There weren’t any real errors, we just got out-thought in the middle there for a bit. For the rest of the game Farmer looked disciplined and confident, and as we approach the run-in it’d be great if he can stay fit, giving us experience, heft and options at the back. 

Molly

I’m still chuckling at the fact that Molly (Molly!) took time out to tell the whole team to shut up, and that there was “too much shouting going on”. If nothing else, the lad absolutely gets irony. Playing in an unfamiliar left-half role while we waited for Jack to grace us with his presence, Molly made the most of the opportunity by poaching a Jack Allen-esque goal at the far stick. This was hugely important and swung the momentum back to us after a comical start. Used as a bit of a Swiss Army tool (and I mean tool in its kinder, more literal sense) Molly worked hard today, nailing a couple of precision long balls, and securing time and space in the middle. Not at fault for the breakaways, but being part of a defensive five with a combined age of 245 probably wasn’t optimal. 

Neil

Excellent to see Happsy fully recovered from a severe bout of BTS (bent toe syndrome), and back playing hockey. Given the marshalling role at the back, Neil gave us great options breaking out as well as organising the defence. I know conceding six doesn’t look great, but actually this wasn’t a game where we looked defensively weak or outmanoeuvred outside of a couple of genuinely anomalous spells. I know Neil gets annoyed when we don’t do things perfectly - that’s because he sets very high standards, and he played accordingly well today. Another couple of weeks to get fully fit and he’ll be back to his best. 

Pringle

Playing the screen role has brought out the superhero known as Pringleman that we all knew was in there. A force with the power of a big JCB digger, and more destructive than a enriched uranium tactical nuclear weapon, Pringle chomped his way through the midfield in the first half like Godzilla at a cheap sushi restaurant. Combining pace, passing and positioning, it came as no surprise that Teddington enjoyed their most productive spell when Rob had to go and recharge on the bench. So once again our lack of options and strength-in-depth undid us versus Teddington. If only Pringle’s uranium wasn’t so depleted. 

Jack

When he actually decided to join us he had his best game of the year. We know he’s a skilful hockey player, and we know he can tackle (when he decides to pick out a player to mark), but we also learned today that he’s pretty quick as well. There weren’t a tremendous number of runs, but when he did chase throughballs - and even when he had to track back (I know!) - it turns out Morgs is pretty fleet of foot (as he should be, being half my age). We really got going when he came on, and he kept Teddington penned in for a really decent chunk of this game. Combine that with some gorgeous touches and some neat passing, and you’ve got a guy who came within a whisker of winning MoM. Sadly, turning up 50 minutes after the meet time when we’d already pushed back isn’t a recipe for winning anything, let alone a star man award. 

Charlie

What can you say about this lad? Has he been a revelation or what? Chazza is so incredibly nimble with his stick, I reckon he must have bought it from Diagon Alley. He’s quick thinking too, making good positive decisions all over the park, retaining possession, dispossessing Teddy midfielders, and running at defenders as if they were pink traffic cones in an all-too-easy hockey drill. I really like watching CC play: he’s skilful, he’s determined, and he’s kind of effortless. Turning a tackle into a breakaway is his forté, and he’s given us a really solid foundation on that right wing. So so close to getting another MoM award, it feels like he’s turning into one of our strongest assets, with no real weaknesses in his game, just upside. I dunno, maybe he’s a really messy eater, or doesn’t know how to tie shoelaces. There must be something. 

Ludders

Some vintage Luddington on display today. He timed his runs well, linked up with Loz and the midfielders like a shiny cog in a particularly intricate grandfather clock mechanism, and he came pretty close to notching a hat trick. One well-taken goal seems a modest return for as hard-working and creative a game as he’s had all year, although I suppose there is something to be said for not hitting six short corners in a row directly at the goalie, especially when their post men were moving out wide off the line every time leaving two big spaces either side of him. Ah well. Maybe next week. 

Lozchester 

Game of the year from the streamlined salsa-ing surveyor from Stourbridge (sub editor, please check this). Incisive when in control of the ball, ruthless when pick-pocketing oppo defenders, and full of guile and gumption when running at and along the by-line. With two great goals and a chunky wide-brimmed-hat full of assists, this was the complete game you want from your mobile centre forward. With no break, Lozza gave everything for all 70 minutes of this game. It’s just a bit annoying that we kept conceding every time he helped get us back in it. Sorry!

Davey 

Monster game from DairyLea. In the first half “the Dunker” almost single-handedly got us back in this fixture. Is it just me or has Davey developed some really sick hockey skills over the course of this season? He meanders around midfielders like the lower course of the Mississippi; he runs at defenders like a Sherman tank slicing its way through the Ardennes forest; and now he’s started scoring goals too! Rapidly turning into one of our best players, DL is at times unplayable. He plays smart hockey, he keeps possession, and he terrorises oppositions when they’re on the ball. I lost count of how many times he, Lozza and Charlie stole the ball from Teddington, but Davey’s non-stop action man performance was a cut above, and for that reason he is this week’s Man of the Match. Congratulations!

So we came up agonisingly short. Just a tiny handful of errors, a smidgeon of slightly off positioning, and probably the lack of one or two extra bodies on the bench put this game mere inches beyond our grasp. It’s so frustrating because we were cutting through them at will at times, we were boxing them in for long spells, and we finally found our shooting sticks. I tell you what though, if we play like that for the remainder of the season, there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t win out. Yeah? Well, let’s do that then. 

Spike