Mens 3 vs Cambridge City 3

This Saturday the Mens 3 had to travel to Wilberforce Road, Cambridge for their game against top of the league Cambridge City 3s. It was a chilly, but bright sunny morning and after the usual shenanigans of players showing up late, going direct after the meet time at the club all eventually showed up at pitch 2 ready for warm up and the motivational pre-match chat from the captain.

Warm up and chat out of the way it was time to get to business and in proper 3s style that meant starting with all the right intentions, to be 1-0 down within the first 5 minutes, because the defence had trouble getting the ball out of their own zone and Cambridge City clearly were more awake.

This did wake up the St Ives side and play got continuously better. Cambridge City did still stay the more dangerous side, but St Ives did get their changes too and play started to flow up and down more. Thanks to some off target shots, tip ins that went on the right side of the post for St Ives and some great rescues from goalie Stephen Denman the half-time score was still 1-0 and St Ives felt like there might be something to get still.

The second half saw Cambridge City change their style of play, which caused more space for St Ives to play their game and get some good hockey on the pitch. The pressure was now more on the City side, and St Ives got some good changes to get on the scoreboard, but were just not lucky enough to get one over the line.

Cambridge City relied more on the counter and with their front line being, about half the age of the defensive line of St Ives, they got several changes, but those only led to penalty corners. Unfortunately for St Ives those proved to be clinical and after an early run from Joep (partly due to a faint insertion by City) leading only 3 field players in the D, the second goal for Cambridge City was scored.

Play very much stayed the same and Cambridge City managed to score another 2 goals from penalty corners, which meant that the final score was 4-0.

Although a loss the St Ives 3 did feel like they played a good match to a side that regularly wins with double figures, and they will keep their heads up for next weeks match against City of Peterborough at home.