Men's Fifth Eleven Vs Buxton

Derwent HC battled against the elements and Buxton in this historic first match for the Fifth Eleven.

With several players making their Senior debut, Derwent could have expected a tough opening exchange but Harry Rudkin, Sam Playdon and "ringer" Ben Langrick took the match to Buxton with some speedy and sustained attacks.

And once Jack Lloyd moved from right back to centre midfield, these forwards moved higher up the pitch and grabbed 2 early goals. A quick 1-2 with Rudkin gave Playdon a shooting opportunity which the Buxton Keeper did well to save. But Langrick Jnr followed up to score from close range. The second was nearly a carbon copy but with Langrick and Rudkin exchanging passes before Playdon swept the ball home.

With Ben Croney missing nothing at left back, Buxton's right sided attacks were blunted time and time again. This left Guy Copestake free to run around (to try and keep warm) and Elliott Poplar could push forward from right back to press for goal number 3.

However, towards the end of the half, Buxton finally found a mix of players who could bring the ball forward and a cross was converted at the far post, giving an alert Andrew Hitchcock no chance in the Derwent goal.

Playing into the strengthening wind was always going to make the second half a test and Buxton were now a different proposition. Within 5 minutes of the restart, the match was all square and after 5 more, Derwent were 3-2 down.

However, the boys showed spirit and driving runs from Louis Johnson on the right were complemented by an assured performance in midfield from Jacob Brown. Through their endeavours, Derwent started to feed the forwards again and Playdon was unlucky not to be awarded a flick.

A flurry of short corners came and went for Derwent before Buxton put gloss on the result with a couple of late goals.

Archie Playdon, Cath Croney and Steve Langrick made up the numbers but the real stars of the day have already been mentioned.