Chelmsford ‘5’s???’ – 3 Brentwood Academy – 0

Lots of inverted commas around this game. It got called off before the break due to ‘a frosty pitch,’ and it was a strong ‘5th team’ that fronted up for the rearranged fixture.

Still, you play what’s in front of you and take care of your own business first. A 10am start was let’s just say sub optimal for this Academy side. That’s the excuses out of the way.

No frost this time in fact it was the sun that was causing the biggest issue for players. To be fair when we started, we looked as good as ever. The first ten minutes belonged to the Academy. Good passing, pressing and movement. I think we caught this strong Chelmsford squad off guard a little. I had a decent shot that narrowly missed both the post/sideboard or a Jake Sanders deflection that would have put us deservedly up. A few other chances to create the chance came and went but once Chelmsford got to grips with things and woke up, they really did dominate the majority of the remaining hour of play.

In truth we had no answer for their superior fitness and sharpness. They were able to find the gaps and moved up the pitch at will. If the path to carry the ball forward was blocked, they passed and found the gaps. It’s a winning formula, simple hockey. In truth to many of our moves broke down. Our control wasn’t quite there and wed learned a very key lesson in the need for the receiver of the ball to move towards it, or in the case of Ian Anderson’s aerials start running in behind. It was a game for passing and movement and when we did that, we were competitive, when we didn’t, we weren’t. Several short corners were well defended but even here the speed and quality of the injection of the ball was probably better then any other team we have faced this season.

In my view we did defend on mass very well and this limited the score to 3. One moment in the second half as they moved the ball from side to side everyone worked to ensure they could create the clearcut chance they wanted and a number of times they resorted to crash ball seeking the deflection. Credit to Fraser who on at least two occasions was the man sprinting back to disrupt what would have been clear through on goal chances. Credit in the bank to Richard Booth, he may feel he’s getting too good at this goal keeping stuff. Without these two it would certainly have been more.

We fed off scraps. One short corner, a good second half shot by James McKay. Santa clearly rewarded Ian Anderson for being good all year with a new stick. The aerials he was getting were seriously impressive as was the drag flick at goal from open play. Looked for all the world it was going ‘top bins’ but an equally impressive save on the line form the Chelmsford defender. A goal in the week of the big 50 for Ian would have been fitting – not to be.

Trip to Braintree next week - they also appear to have gotten the early pushback bug.

Team: Richard Booth, Fraser McLauchlan, Simon Roffe, Ian Anderson, Max Bakal, James McKay, Gary MacDonnell, Rob Sanders, Sam Anderson, Isaac Minor, Jake Sanders, Chris Minor, Frank Edwards, Doug Muncey,.

Man of the Match: Fraser McLauchlan – very impressive performance and showed great desire, skill and athleticism to snuff out a number of Chelmsford attacks.