Six out of Six

Another fine display saw the Redsox extend their winning start to the season with a sixth win out of six.

London Wayfarers cried off this fixture last year but yesterday they arrived with a young feisty squad determined to make the trip out of London worthwhile and during the first half their fast running and early movement of the ball threatened to pose us some serious problems. Fortunately they were unable to breach our strong defence (despite losing Simon C early on through injury) and just before half time a good flowing move gave Ben Major the chance to fire us into the lead with a strong & fully-intentional shot just inside the near post.

In the second half the Redsox moved up the gears and some excellent interchange between Hoops and Ben down the right set up two outstanding goals well finished by Micky and Hunty and the final goal came from some agile work from Amrish who stole back possession just outside the Wayfarers circle before setting up Hunty for his second finish from close range.

Again everyone played well and the fluency of ball movement and hard running made all the difference. Damon and Mike Pell made a strong central defensive team, Hoops ran strongly to good effect at right half, linking well with midfield. Chopper Pringle did his best to keep our keeper on his toes with short corner practice and to his credit Martin saved very well with both his hands and feet for a third successive clean sheet. In midfield Ben and Terry ran like greyhounds to ensure Wayfarers were unable to settle on the ball & kept us on the front foot while Amrish and Paxo used their experience and skill to keep the ball moving fluently.

Upfront Fitty, Hunty, Dave S and Micky were usually in the right places to either receive passes or finish off some of our good flowing moves. The Redsox have hit a rich vein of form with everyone contributing to make it a great team to play for and the post-match bar banter only adds to the fun (see attached).

Big thanks to Mikes Gray and Keiller for blowing well in a game played in good spirit and to Nigel for coming to support from the touchline (old Redsox are always welcome members of the squad) and big thanks for Bartie for supporting before rushing off to sort out our tea! The match was a great demonstration of Vets hockey and perhaps our first XI could have learned a bit about keeping possession better as we watched them slip up against Hampstead afterwards.

Next week we face second placed Old Cranleighans away (they will undoubtedly bring in some younger legs) so we need a strong squad as well as supporting the SuperVets (so please do everything you can to make yourself available and let Bartie know).

Well done Redsox

Micky