COWHC Men's 3s vs Woking Men's 5s - 13th Jan 2018

Woking had a pretty young team out today with a few old boys playing at the back.

We had a ‘special’ guest stepping in for Jenks as spectator who surprisingly didn’t get any DoD votes for not being able to play after having a fight with a home appliance and ended up needing hand surgery.

In the absence of Hutch this week it was down to the skipper to produce the massive hit outs from our 22. With many going to the opposition’s forwards we will welcome him stepping down from this role when Hutch is back on form.

Our defence were solid as usual putting in big tackles when needed. Woj in centre defence instead of his usual wide position played well with lots of interceptions meaning the sweeper had to put in a small amount vital last tackles. Tezza on a clean sheet, once again, had to organise the defence for only a couple of shorties. Brooks, feeling brave, went for number 1 runner making a key block from a heavy shot on goal.

From our defensive centre half the ball was played out to Cocksy on the left hand side who hit many balls flying up the line. The midfield and forwards did not manage to get on the end of most of these line balls, even when 3 of our players were lined up in a row to pick up the pass. Still we took the pitch advantage when the ball ran out the back line and picked up interceptions, pressing right at them.

There was a lot of possession in and around the oppositions D but too much dribbling meant the forwards were getting frustrated with the ball not being passed to them which was clearly/aggressively communicated by Indy at the half time team talk. We eventually played our usual quick pass style of hockey and just before half time Swifty passed to Indy who scored a clinical goal from the edge of the D.

The second half went well with a lot of good link up play in the mid field from JD, Steelers, Colley and Jack with some rapid sprints from Lewis up the right wing. The rolling subs kept everyone on point, apart from one player who won DoD for attempting to go back on the pitch without his stick, once told about this, couldn’t find his stick and had to ask ‘where’s my stick’, what a melt!

We were in the opposition D for most of the half and gained 4 or 5 short corners. The well drilled shorties went just as planned with the Woking goalie keeping them from getting truly hammered. A lot of shots and great play was made from open play with Mulley putting the game away by scoring the second goal.

All round an impressive team effort. We did the things drilled into us in the team talks well with great emphasis on passion, possession, work rate (everyone put in more than +5%), man marking and communication. Passing could improve, need to remember that we shred teams when we use our quick pass and move style of play.

PoM: JD/dP, DoD: Lewis