Mens 1 vs Old Merchant Taylors 2

Dear fans of the most spectacular Men's hockey team in the AL5 post code area with an average age above 40, did you miss me? Hopefully not too much, the Paris Olympics should have filled some of your sporting content void created by the HHC off season.

Much has changed for your Harpenden Men's 1st Team: Lieutenant Dan has been promoted to Captain, Dom has become Coach and Durbs is filling the water bottles.

In our first friendly of the season we were blessed with a strong line up of seasoned vets plus up-and-coming superstars in Freddie and Charlie. And boy were we thankful for Charlie... us defenders (Bunbury, Reesy, Durbs, Danny, Freddie) were watching on as time and again the three amigos up front showed us how elegant one can appear whilst missing a barn-door with a banjo.

Old Merchant Taylor's were a side that appeared to be in early season - skilful players who yet to have a structure instilled in them. They were clearly dangerous on the break, and so we were very thankful when Charlie was subbed on, made the perfect lead to the p-spot and showed the three amigos how to finish a cup of tea. Well done sir, on your second game for the 1s too!

OMT2s 0 - Harps 1

It was decided we would play three twenty minute thirds as a preseason game. Which one thought would be easy enough but played havoc with Dom's first break team talk. If I recall with 100% accuracy it went something like: "Reesy you were awesome in the first third, the rest of you need to step up in the second half (erm third, we're playing thirds), let's throw more aerials like we did in the second half of the first third (so that would be the second sixth)"

In the second third not a lot happened of note. We had a few short corners, the sonic boom was unleashed but deflect once off the line by a defender and again by their keeper.

Henry wasn't even playing and managed to dislocate his thumb.

What was nice though was evidence of our new attacking style being employed. the midfield of Singer, Rusty, Skills and Weaver collecting the ball under pressure and getting us up the pitch.

In the first half of the third third (or the fifth sixth if you prefer) they scored. I would argue this was against the run of play as we had plenty of spooned-chances but one can't deny the threat OMTs had when they could engineer a one on one or a two on two.

OMT2s 1 - Harps 1

This equalizer sparked us into life and thankfully our other forwards paid attention to Charlie's finish from earlier... Mark Hoefield put us back ahead after a lovely team move, and Coach Dom put the game out of reach.

OMT2s 1 - Harps 3

Our preseason continues on Wednesday evening against Luton, I'm going to read How to Win Friends and Influence people in the meantime as we have a very competitive squad this year and I need to be on Dom and Danny's good side.

Ones: Sam, Bunbury, Durbs, Reesy, Danny, Freddie, Weaver, Skills, Singer, Rusty, Charlie, the Amigos (Dom, Todd, Mark)