Boys' Hockey: U11 Season Report 2022

After last year’s write-off of the entire hockey season, due to Covid, it was immensely pleasurable to be able to host a full term’s fixtures again.

Our first match saw us pitted against Strathallan and boy, what a start we made.  Uniquely in my time as a coach, every single player on the pitch played well and we won comfortably.  The B-team also won well.  Reality bit soon after though, when we came up against an accomplished Loretto side which was a step up in quality on us.  Their boys were confident on the ball, dribbled strongly and fluently and it says much that despite losing 4-1, our goalie Archie was the Man of the Match.  The Bs, however provided a stirring performance in a 1-0 victory.

Next up, and very early in the term really, we had the I.A.P.S. tournament.  We started with a blinder of a match, spreading the ball wide to match our well-drilled opponents Craigclowan and with new-found striker Tommy, we won the game comfortably.  Sadly, that was as good as it got and a disappointing draw against a poor Ardvreck side left us feeling dejected.  I feel we had been a little complacent going into the game and ended up trying to smash through the opponents rather than playing around them and we paid the price.  Two 3-0 defeats came next against the two teams who ended up in the final, Fettes and Cargilfield but we still went into the third-place play-off match where we held our own well against St. Peter’s York but succumbed just before penalty flicks to a last-gasp golden goal, to finish fourth of eight teams.

We then got our chance of making up for our disappointing Ardvreck performance and take it we did, as we won handsomely and got seven different scorers on the team-sheet.  This was followed in apocalyptic conditions (you do have to have one match in horrible weather in the spring) by a convincing loss to Fettes when we could barely see the ball at times through the horizontal sleet, though the Bs and Cs seemed to have no problem as we won both of those matches.

Two more wins followed; an excellent effort against Merchiston where Hector’s excellent long-corner shot provided the odd goal in five to win, and the Bs fought to a draw thanks to the excellent Charlie J.  Then the U10s went to St. Mary’s to win well – it should have been at least ten more but our shooting was way off.

We ended the season with clashes with Cargilfield and the As and Bs lost narrowly, despite some more good play from Alfie and some superb reaction saves from Archie and the Cs drew in a match which is best remembered for a goal-line miss, one of the craziest open-goal misses I’ve ever seen.  The boy’s name will remain with me to spare his blushes.

So overall a good season, Won 9, Drawn 3 and Lost 7 and every single boy from this huge 26-strong cohort played at least four times.

Player of the Season: Archie R. just misses out despite some excellence in goal to our most creative, daring and skilled player, Alfie.

The Stats: