Loss at home for M2s

This was another close encounter between two evenly matched sides, undeterred by the howling gale which blew diagonally down the pitch. We had a squad of twelve, including in goal Stuart, who had already kept for the 1st X1. At various stages, Paul, Chris and Hugh all sustained foot injuries and had to leave the pitch. Rashid played in central defence in the absence of Peter, and few chances were created at either end. Unfortunately, half way through the first half, a misdirected 16 metre hit out by Tony was intercepted, and this led to the only goal of the game.

Throughout, we showed good skills in midfield, but never quite got enough support forward for Chris, who was invariably outnumbered up front. Nevertheless, the half time briefings were optimistic, and we had the wind largely behind us for the second half. In the event, although we got a bit more support forward for Chris, and we won a series of long corners, and two penalty corners, we rarely got a meaningful shot on target. At the other end, Tony partly redeemed himself with an instinctive goal-line stop after a penalty corner.

We were left to reflect that Leatherhead did the double against us, but that we didn't really deserve to lose either match.