9th Feb 2019 Mens 4th v Tadcaster Magnets 1(Away) 1 - 4 loss
In a week of gales and rain Saturday�s game versus Tadcaster 1s was played on an unexpectedly sunlit upland at their Grammar School.
Our largest crowd of the season had a good view of the game, which was tempestuous from the off. Taddy playing strong, fast and straight and the mighty fourths relying on guile, spidey-skills and tenacity to keep the match tense for both teams.
Barnaby, on his return to Men�s hockey looked like he�d never been away, with Ewan showing to collect the pass from his driver, usually after rampaging up the field from left-back where he was giving no quarter to an aggressive Taddy front-line who were keen to share their umpiring skills and advice all game.
Our midfield worked tirelessly and had the edge in skills all game, but not the larger shoulder or stronger stick-tackle which often negated the skills on display. Rob owned the right side of the pitch, working into Carrick and Sam with Greg marshalling play on the left. Mack subbed across the midfield bringing skills and stamina seamlessly into his roles.
At the back Dave kept stepping into the tackle and upsetting the Taddy players with his strength and timing. Zak owned the ball beautifully on the right, moving us forward through a range of pushes, slide passes, aerials and driven injections into the D.
As usual Westy just strolled around and shouted at people, when he should probably have been keeping an eye on the forward who drifted into space for the first goal � however Josh hadn�t noticed him either and both upped their game afterwards � Josh far enough to get the MOTM nomination from Taddy.
At half-time a 1-0 lead to Taddy left both teams thinking they could get the crucial next goal and turn the game their way.
Amongst the highlights of the game were Greg scoring a goal, and then studiously avoiding scoring another two, an egregious example of hat-trick avoidance � something which the fines committee will have to look at seriously next week when Ewan convenes it � and a lovely off drive he played to a bouncing ball near our D, unexpected but effective.
During a tense period of pressure and aggression by the Taddy midfield they threatened the Rhydding D � and Carrick stepped in to provide the foul needed to break down play and allow us to reset � gaining a green card and keeping the 100% record of being the only player in the team to get carded, the Badass trophy is surely only a few games away for him.
Taddy�s right back came off looking like a corkscrew after a game of being turned inside out by Barny whose effortless skills caused havoc all game.
Despite these, over a short ten-minute spell in the second half Taddy scored two well-taken goals and the win slipped away. Unfortunately as the game closed towards a comfortable win for Taddy their forward was, once again, tackled by Dave but he still swung through full and hard splitting Dave�s eyebrow open � oddly this was one of the few non-malicious incidents in the game � after clearing the blood the game fizzled out, finishing as a 4-1 loss and leaving a sour taste. Our official photographer caught the action, expecting to utilise his artistic skills to show the beauty in hockey he ended up capturing stills from what would be a video nasty.
We�ve learnt that we have the attitude to compete, the crowd to create the atmosphere and the skills to reward them � bring on York next week!