Abingdon Hockey Club

ABINGDON HOCKEY CLUB 3RD TEAM MATCH REPORT 30TH JANUARY

HIGH WYCOMBE 2 0 ABINGDON

THE THIRDS` MOTO : WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH THE THIRDS GET STUFFED

After last week`s blip when the thirds entered the unfamiliar territory of winning we were pleased to go back to our comfort zone of consistent losing.

Dave `motormouth` Rollins and Malc `optimist` West gave inspiring and uplifting team talks before the game started and we pushed back, amazingly convinced that we could win and for long periods we held them and even had a few chances ourselves with Ben Lawler and Edouard ( FrogEd ) both going close but they scored a very well taken goal ten minutes before half time. Under lesser leaders, heads would have dropped but it is a tribute to Dave`s and Malcolm`s powers of persuasion that we entered the second half convinced, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that we could get something out of this match and we battled to the bitter end and even when High Wycombe scored rather a soft second goal heads did not drop ( apart from mine which is always rather close to the ground )

The trouble is a good hockey player has skill, pace, stamina and intelligence. Several of our players have one or more of these attributes but Smarty no longer has any of them. High Wycombe had some players who had all of them, one sickeningly talented player whose face I never saw because he was always well past me by the time I managed to look up.

The team played with determination and resilience, we are improving and one day I reckon we will win another game and eventually we will have to change our moto.
Richard Smart