Mens 1 vs Cambridge South 1

A fan challenged me to pen a report in theme of the 12 days of Christmas... sorry but I'm going to have to let you down on that one.

We faced top of the league this week in Cambridge South. Ahead of the came Skills walked in late and told us apparently he can't lift his arm due to "weight lifters elbow", those 10kg dumbbells do get heavy eh. Captain Dan told us before the game it was about effort and attitude, highlighted St Albans and Old Loughts as performances we should aim to repeat.

Mum you''ll be glad to hear my calf's better, I have had a horrific form of lurgy the last week though, causing me to miss training but I toughened up enough to play. As I tell the Under 8s - we are "tough hockey players". In fact the Under 8s are much hardier than our Men's Ones: this match was postponed from last week due to a bit of cold, wind and rain... it didn't stop our youngest club members braving the elements on Sunday.

Sill my ego took a hit as I was benched to start with (amazing right)?). Singer and I watch on as the first 5 minutes of the game evolved without an aerial being thrown, and we were under a lot of pressure. Something was wrong with the press, probably needed new hydraulics. A Cambridge striker kicks the ball into our goal, after handbags and accusations of sportsmanship they eventually conceded it was not a goal scored within the rules. It didn't help much as wave after wave of attacks happened.

Singer and I came on and steadied the ship for a bit and the game became more even. Stll we were up against a quality outfit and they continued to have short corners and efforts t goal - Tom Bunbury made an impressive baseball-style save off the line from a drag flick. An even more impressive save came a few minutes later when a flick was awarded to Cambridge after I got hit on the line in the leg. The Cambridge striker never looked confident facing our might Andy King in goal, maybe he'd seen a highlight reel of our shot-stoppers best? Andy launched himself to the left in the shape of a shooting star, the flick unfortunately went down the middle but Andy's trailling left leg booted the ball to safety.

It certainly wasn't all in favour of Cambridge. Mark got clattered by the keeper outside the D when he was clean through. Henry also smartly struck a shorty towards the bottom corner only for a defender to deflect it onto the post.

Jack had been moved into the forward line, when asked in the pub what shall I write about him in the match report he didn't come up with anything... still he was having a good game.

Halftime 0-0

No squashies! I am grateful for the sweets that were brought along, but they were pretty damn hard in the cold and gave my jaw a good workout. Singer had a chat with the oppo whilst Danny told us how awesomely we were playing.

The second half was tight. One of their forwards charges towards the D, Skills goes low, wins the ball and executes the kind of tip tackle that would get a red card in rugby these days. One of the Cambridge defenders saw this, and a seventh of the half (that would be a fourteenth) later decides to try and emulate the feat and ends up essentially tombstoning Charlie Moxham. Mox is fine, bounces up and takes a free hit. I reckon'd it was a 10 minute yellow but my buddy the umpire saw it as a coming together. He actually loves me that particular umpire, he still talks about witnessing my 60yard reverse stick aerial from last season.

Talking of aerials our mighty Skipper Danny put one in, he was dead chuffed with it too.

I tackled a player whilst in the same motion played the ball onto their foot, their striker showed an Mbappe like touch to play the ball forward, smack it into the D and a deflection goes in, shucks.

0-1

We'd been playing well and had had plenty of short and chances. One fell to Birthday Boy Todd who fired it towards goal, Henry "made sure" it went in.

1-1

Durbs had been putting a real shift in, well done lad. He also found himself essentially doing shuttles across the pitch at one stage, causing Mr Bunbury to look at each other quizzically. Well if you've got the energy I guess go for it, i certainly don't!

They scored, the party poopers.

Full time Harps 1 - 2 Cambridge South.

If you play well against quality opposition, have chances and lose narrowly you can't complain too much. It was a cracking effort and shows that against better opposition we can compete.

MoM: Mox

Champagne Moment: Elvis' save off the penalty flick

DoD: no one!

Happy Christmas readers - see you in the new year.