U11 v Loretto

The second match of the season for the U11 team was against Loretto and took place here at Belhaven Hill, on grass. The pitch was rather soggy and heavy underfoot, conditions on which it was not easy to play attractive hockey. It was a day for getting low and strong and banging the ball out wide for the wings to run on to.

Tom won the toss and chose the push-back. It came back to him, he swung and missed it – not an auspicious start! Loretto swooped on this mistake and we were immediately under pressure. It barely lifted for the entire half. Loretto seemed to be camped in our D and we just could not manage to clear the ball. The boys were making a number of mistakes at this time, most noticeable of which was the way in which they were hacking at ball like a bunch of decrepit old ladies trying to kill a mouse with their walking sticks. Our free hits were also poor with the hitters frequently missing the ball altogether! The rest of the boys seemed to disappear 50m down the field which didn’t help.

Eventually the inevitable happened and Loretto scored a goal. I was amazed that it was the only one of the half and I was relieved when the half ended, giving me the chance to have a word with the team.

Like last week, we burst out of the starting blocks in the second half and charged down the field towards their goal. We didn’t score on that occasion, but it certainly looked promising. The boys started getting lower and slapping the ball out wide which gave Kit and Constantin the chance to run with it. Hewie and Will also started getting the ball more often down the middle. Geordie, who had an excellent game,  was by now taking all the free hits and managed to smack them a good distance (most of the time). Our positioning for free hits was still weak and this is something that we will have to work on tomorrow. Jamie worked his socks off in both halves but made some very important tackles in this one. At one stage Loretto got the ball past Ollie and looked certain to cross the line. Indeed, it reached the line but before it could cross it, Jamie’s stick came thudding down on it to halt its progress. Whew! We still seemed to give them far too much room to move in the middle of the field with boys seeming to have little understanding of how important it is to fall back when possession is lost.

Ollie had an excellent game and was called on to make a number of saves. In one sequence he made five consecutive saves within thirty seconds without another Belhaven boy touching the ball; this was an indication of both his determination and the poor responses of our defence who stood back and watched it all happen.

Eventually the ball was hit out wide to Kit who ran on to it, knocked it forward and then crossed it into the D; the first shot at goal was saved but then it was knocked in by Will to level the scores. This was a deserved goal as we had played some decent hockey.

The final three minutes were quite tense with the ball finding its way into both Ds but neither team could capitalise to steal the match and it ended as a respectable draw.

Once again, it was as match of two halves. We were quite poor in the first half but not bad in the second, earning our goal. It is difficult to adapt to play on a wet, soggy pitch and in that regard the boys did well.

Belhaven Hill    1    -    1    Loretto

M.O.T.M. Ollie, without whom we would have been five goals down, at least.