MK vs Old Georgians

MK 1st XI Match Report vs Old Georgians
The 1st XI enjoyed an excellent game of hockey on Saturday, but eventually fell to a 4-2 defeat against a table topping Old Georgians side. In a game that the umpires said could easily be mistaken for national league hockey, it was OGs’ potency in front of goal that saw them pick up the three points. A combination of nerves and anxious warmup Meant that we started the game slowly. We weren’t creating anything up front, and the defence weren’t retaining the ball with their normal composure. OGs, meanwhile, started the game quickly with more then a handful of talented if not slightly heavy players. Amongst them was James Tindall, a former England forward who went to the Olympics a couple of times. Our poor play combined with the oppo’s strike force did not make for a happy start to the game for us. We gave the ball away far too often and this was punished as Georgians took a 3-0 lead in the first half. A late rally did see us test the keeper once or twice (including a weak short corner flick (direct quote from the former Olympian) not far wide of the right post from J dogg but we failed to get on the score sheet before half time.

There was nothing too complicated in nicks half time team talk as he just reinforced the one thing we needed to focus on concentration and composure.

The upshot was we needed to stop playing the high risk hockey we’d started the game with, and revert to the patient game we’d been playing for the rest of the season and work hard to cut on the press. This we did and slowly the game started to open up for us. We were creating chance after chance, and played the better hockey for the rest of the game. However, with us coming back into the game, Old Georgians seemed keen to shut down the game and played an increasingly physical game of hockey. There was an interesting episode where an OG player received a green for an off the ball incident. Determined to get back into the game, MK scored goal of the season which started in the back line with a fantastic anti skill dummy pass from our token Irishman scott. Before long we re-doubled our efforts with our new found confidence again converted by south-leagues equivalent of Jamie hardy - Mikey goalson with 6 in the last 3 games. Unfortunately og's grabbed a goal back in the last 5 minutes of the games to reassert their 2 goal lead.
Whilst we are disappointed to lose again, we can take solace in the fact that this was one of the better performances from the side this year. We put in a gritty performance against talented opposition, and didn’t let our heads drop even when three goals down at half time. We have now slipped away from the European places, but if the team continues to play hockey like this, we are still more than capable of finishing in the inter toto cup spot. The team is enjoying it’s hockey and is playing an exciting, attacking game that stands us in good stead for the rest of the season and next year. Man of the Match went to Mikey for both goals. Unfortunately DOD was won by scott but conspiracy theories are pouring in about a fix as results were tied for Jamie Dodd coops and Nick Anderson (all likely winners)

Mk's next test is tough away encounter against 2nd place Havant. Confidence is high in the claret and blue camp after a string of good performances since January and a full strength team to pick from.