Brentwood Academy – 0 Chelmsford 5’s - 0

Despite the scoreline this was an enjoyable game to play in. Felt like there was plenty of action both teams going for the win but 0-0 comes with a certain reputation.

This was always going to be a tough match. Chelmsford 5’s had really put us to the sword after the Christmas break and whilst this was clearly a slightly weaker team still a lot of quality and fitness in there to worry us. Same set up, Ian Anderson into the centre of our three-man defence and James Edwards on the left side after rave reviews of his previous weeks, performance, gutted to miss that.

On review this was a game of two halves. The first half really did belong to Chelmsford. We were on the back foot and struggled to get a foothold in the game. What we did do well was keep our shape and there was excellent communication throughout the team, meaning we generally picked up players in dangerous positions and tracked runners. Whilst we were on the defensive, we had our moments. Jake Sanders had our best chance of the first half. Receiving the ball in the D he worked his way into shooting space getting around a defender and shifting the goal-keeper but he just travelled a little to far outside of the goal area and failed to get his reverse hit back on target. To be fair Chelmsford, for all their domination didn’t have much more to show for their efforts. Two short corners and perhaps the games best chance as a ball came across the D and found their young striker unmarked on the back post. However, a slight deflection off Ian Anderson’s forearm was just enough to put him off and the ball went harmlessly wide.

I don’t like talking about umpires in these reports, I don’t have the bottle to step up and do it myself so my criticisms must therefore be kept to a minimum. But an umpires conference mid-way through the half where we were informed that umpires would be simply not be enforcing any sense of playing free hits from where the infringements happened did boil my internal bodily fluids. It is my own personal bugbear, the rule as I understand it is that “A free hit is awarded to a team if the opposing team commits a foul outside the circle. It is taken close to where the offence occurred. During a free hit, the ball must be stationary and opponents must be standing at least five metres from the ball.” Source: https://olympics.com/en/news/field-hockey-rules-how-to-play

Now I’m not in favour of getting the GPS out to be precise but some effort must be made to get it close. I can’t complain that we weren’t umpired consistently, we very much were but some free hits weren’t even in the same postcode of the foul and that makes a mockery of the game – rant over.

Second half was more Brentwood. No short corners at all – it was a relief not to be facing any as their injections are simply the best I have faced at this level. We were down to ten men for a period in the second half. My yellow as I went desperately in to stop a dangerous attack. To be fair it was going to be stopped by fair or foul means. The odds were probably 40:60 against me, foul certainly, green I could get on board with, yellow felt a little harsh – perhaps the umpires had the foresight to know that my match report would have such a zinger of putdown against them. There was some confusion as I accepted my fate quickly and jogged off whilst Chelmsford remonstrated with the umpires that I should be sent off leading some to think it was actually Chelmsford receiving a card for the remonstration. Its not a great look for me to hear my teammates stating afterwards that they didn’t realise they were down to ten.

We forced the better of the second half chances, I had a half chance late on as the ball fell to me in the D but Chelmsford by now had quite a packed defence and were more reliant on quick counters. Honours even. In hindsight a decent result against a well organised team sitting above us in the league.

The result leaves us sixth, one game to go. 5 points behind 5th and 7 points ahead of 7th. Sixth is where we will finish as we play 5th placed Saffron Walden next week. Its going to be on the beach pitch you just know it. Get practicing your aerials boys.

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

Man of the Match: Fraser McLauchlan – Has come on leaps and bounds this season. Strong in defence and driving forward more. Where did that reverse spin thing emerge from? Brilliant.