MK vs Banbury

MK prepared to Banbury on another hot day in September in the last of their preseason fixtures before the league season starts. MK were without their coach as he was busy on an international scouting mission to Ischia, off the coast of Italy. Whilst not a traditional hockey area, Coach Dad was hoping to find some rough diamonds that could be persuaded to exchange the uncomfortably hot and humid climes of the Bay of Naples for the more temperate Milton Keynes with its excellent grid system and thriving local economy. This left MK under the watchful eye of Captain Nick Anderson and professional coach Danny Newcombe.

Banbury turned up with only their home strip, a somewhat bizarre decision given they knew that MK played in Maroon, and so MK were forced to play in their white strip. This appeared to affect the squad mentally and was to have some horrible effects throughout the game.

The warm up began with Jamie Dodd leading a new and innovative warm up designed to prepare the squad mentally and physically for a tough game ahead against league opposition. The squad appeared to buy into this and unfortunately this appeared to be when they played their best hockey of the day...

The game began with neither side particularly taking control and a lot of turnovers conceded by both sides. Both sides had their chances though these were mostly through poor play from the opposition rather than their own quality. Towards the end of the half MK began to get into the game and following some well won possession high on the pitch Mikey Gilson fed Ali McColl to score on his return to the side after being struck with the curse of the metatarsal. Having taken the lead and being comfortable MK decided it was too easy and decided to get two players sent off for very much avoidable cards. This was not part of the plan!

After some stern words about discipline at the break MK returned to the pitch and promptly disregarded them. Banbury managed to fashion an opportunity and finish to level the scores. Following this, an altercation by the sideline led to MK being reduced to 10 men for the rest of game. Banbury then began to exert some pressure and create chances, one of which forced a magnificent save from GK Nick Gage. Unfortunately the numerical advantage eventually told and Banbury scored what would turn out to be the winner. This finally prompted MK to create some chances of their own, but regrettably they were unable to finish any of them the game resulted in a loss for MK

Milton Keynes now go into a solid training block for the next 2 weeks before the season starts, having seen a preseason that started so well finish rather poorly. The work done between now and the 3rd of October will be very important and should hopefully correct the errors that need fixing and give the team the best chance of getting the required results come the start of the league campaign