Men's Third Eleven Vs Newark

So I've waited for Newark's match report and weve seen it. As Samuel L Jackson said 'allow me to retort'. I'm also writting this whilst drunk. Hoo rah.

1. Dodgy surface - it's a  state of the art pitch. Granted not water based but not the green concrete we suffer at Newark. Watch the fourth team kids play. Their '3D' skills are awesome. Its how hockey is played so get used to it.

2. 'Experienced side' like its something to be ashamed about. Three players were aged 14/15 and they owned their kids. Yes, Sam, Josh, Evan and Ben are young but they compete in adult games like adults. We don't win because we carry younger players. We expect young players to fight and play. Thay are not our reason for losing.

3. 'Route one' hockey - read their match report for our 5-1 defeat there and you'll see their admiration of Alex's goal. We did that four times on Saturday. Why is scoring 4 goals from 6 (not 5 as they state - we could have gone ahead in the first minute) seen as luck? We sliced them apart and played to our strengths. In the Kettering report I make a remark about deploying a team to beat Kettering. Thats what we did on Saturday. We put a team out to beat them knowing what they were like. So Josh and Sam play awesome games against the best wingers in the league. We cancel out their players. Tony, Harry and myself discuss the team and we adapt accordingly using the strenghts we have.  Granted Alex was a revelation and gladly so but you don't win games with one person. Fred's hit is an asset. It scores us goals and gets us out of trouble. Any teM would use if they had it - but they don't! He's the best in the league at it and came to the game with his bus pass - brilliant. Newark drilled and had music, we knocked our 8 balls around whilst I found two umpires. Of course I would like things easier but they arnt at Derwent and thats why its a joy to captain the side. 

In short, we won because we planned to. They lost be because they thought we were a push over.