Mens 4th Team Vs Northampton Saints 5

Another hard fought result for the Men's 4s, but this week gave us our first win of the season.

With our most youthful - and quickest - line up of the season, our tactics were clear - simple passing and pushing forwards with pace. We started more positively than the previous week, and had the better of the early exchanges, ultimatley taking the lead through a short corner, delfected in by Max Darlison. We continued to press forwards, but Saints equalised with an audacious reverse stick strike, which no-one was expecting. Suffice to say that was the only contribution that Saints player made all game!

Tempers rised throughout the match - Max getting a card for uncharacteristically swearing at the umpire (lucky not to get a yellow) - as Boots failed to receive any positive decisions from either umpire.

In the second half, Boots created many more chances by running witht he ball less and instead playing simpler hockey and making the runs off the ball. The Saints keeper was kept very busy, with most of the team getting a pop at goal. As the game entered the final 10 minutes, it was increasingly stretched as both sides searched for a winner, with Boots surviving a few indifferent Saints short corners, and lucky not to go in front with Rob Mann and Tom Waplington both getting close. Brian Thompson then got a green card for accidentally tripping a player. However we broke through with 5 minutes to go, Jim Caron finishing off following a few Boots players missing the ball, and then Max sealed the win a couple of minutes later, following a flowing move.

All-in-all a pleasing win. It was the type of game we'd have lost last season, so it's great to see the year-on-year progress, and extend our unbeaten run to 3 games.

Lewis Mawer got man-of-the match due to his timely saves when they mattered (it should be noted that we had a lot of people in the running - a sign of how well we played as a team)