COWHC Men's 3s vs Goan Men's 1s - 29th October

There are many ways to prepare oneself for an important, early season, top of the table clash. Finding oneself "accidentally" in a gay bar (N.B. not an Electric Six reference!) on the Friday night isn't normally an obvious one, however that's the option that Dav decided to take, even going so far as to share a photo on WhatsApp while others were trying to work out who they'd be hitchin' a ride from! I assume Dav's in the minority there, although it certainly seemed to have an effect on him - more of which later!

Anyway, an early push back meant an even earlier meet time, so early in fact that we were left waiting, redundant, outside the pitch at 9 a.m.! Still, eventually the pitch was unlocked, we set up the goals and proceeded to go through a comprehensive warm up. Thus prepped, dP took us through the line up, ensured that only 11 players were on the pitch to start with, and the game got underway.

For the first 10 minutes or so we were playing a similar brand of hockey to that of last week, passing crisply and creating several chances that just didn't quite manage to find the back of the net. And then we seemed to turn into a walking contradiction of that, allowing Goan to get back into things and great a few chances of their own. They won a couple of short corners, one of which ricocheted around and led to Guy (not in goal this week) having to pull off a superb stop in the air on the line.

The rest of the half ebbed and flowed, before we took the lead. Some great work by Ben Burke down the left saw him cross the ball for Hugo to finish. The second goal followed, Dav popping up to finish this time.

And then, disaster. When I come around to thinking about it, it was one of those catalogues of unfortunate events which go against you. My pass to Swifty was intercepted millimetres before it reached him. Goan fed the ball forward quickly, their striker went initially shoulder to shoulder with Hoops, then, with a suspicion of a nudge of the elbow was suddenly one on one with 'keeper Terry. Tezza made the initial stop sliding out, but the bounce of the ball favoured the Goan player and not Steve who was covering through the middle. The finish was easy into an open net: 2 - 1.

Half time saw some wise words from dP and Hoops, the latter crucially pointing out we needed to step in front of their players and that we should double up on the danger man through the middle. We all realised that nice guys finish last and so from the first whistle of the half stepped up our game.

Interceptions were suddenly being made all over the pitch, tackles were sharper, passes crisper and we began to reassert our dominance.

Goal number 3 came from one of several short corners won through the game. Having had enough practice, we still couldn't get it right... and yet fortunately this time the deflections took the ball to Hoops who had made his way from injecting towards the post. Keeping his composure, he buried the ball in the back of the goal.

And then came one of the most bizarre moments I've seen on a hockey pitch ever. Dav made a tackle (that's not the bizarre bit!) and then proceeded to show us some moves that I can only assume he'd picked up the previous evening in his new favourite bar, as he displayed footwork that would have made Len Goodman proud, dancing round the ball like there were 21 guns shooting at his feet!

Goal number four could have come significantly earlier than it actually did had Hugo not decided he was suddenly the Jesus of suburbia and that every time he got into the D the shot was clearly the better option than, say a simple pass to someone in the open...

Anyway, arrive it did as Chris took a quick free hit, played a neat 1-2 with Hugo (who was too far from goal to attempt a shot), strode forward down the left and played it to Dav at the top of the D. He then laid it off to Mulley who scored (there may have been a slight deflection there, but I didn't see it... honest).

Towards the end of the match Raj became a bit of a basket case and decided to get himself green carded, but we held firm keeping the 3 goal cushion with the aid of a flying save from Terry, tipping the ball onto the post.

It's probably too early to say whether we're on the road to another promotion or the boulevard of broken dreams, but 3 points clear and with a healthy goal difference after 5 matches, the longview says we should at least be in the mix for honours at the end of the season.

POM went to Hoops for inspirational words, solid defending, composure in front of goal and putting his body on the line.

DOD was Hugo for attempting to break the single match scoring record and failing miserably.