Old Southendian 1^st XI 3 – 3 Southend 1^st XI

Scorers: Peoples, Catchpole, Barclay D

MOM: Calvin, JOS: Dicko

Buoyed by the 3^rd team’s impressive win over Southend’s 2s, we began the game confident of securing a second win of the day for the Old Boys. SHC started with very conservative tactics, setting a half-court press and committing few players forward. This saw us control the vast amount of early possession, and, despite playing at far from our best level, eventually took the lead when Liam converted our first short corner of the game.

At this stage we were very much in control, however to the opposition’s credit they continued to break-down our attacking options, and then upped their forward play to equalise against the run of play to draw level. Regrettably what followed after the interval was a spell of some of our worst hockey of the season, and after goals had been exchanged at either end from short corners, Tom was wrong-footed at his near post to leave us trailing 3-2.

Thankfully we finished the match and our season on a high. Having enjoyed the most of the closing stages, with Liam blasting our best chance over the bar on his reverse stick, we finally drew level with two minutes to go. Macca’s short corner strike was nimbly converted on the rebound by Dave B to send the large home crowd into raptures. Better was to follow only half a minute later, as poor defensive play from SHC saw the ball drift into Macca’s path to slot into an empty net. Unfortunately the high-tech Warners Bridge Video Referral System is still a few years away, and so we had to settle for the umpire’s conclusion that the ball appeared to clipped Timmy’s foot and a point in what was overall an under-par performance from the Old Boys.

Nonetheless, we finish the season with 16 wins, 3 draws and 51 points, around 10 points ahead of whoever eventually claims second spot. Certainly an impressive achievement to have won the league by such a margin, but there is undoubtedly work to be done and improvements to be made if we are to challenge for promotion from Div 1 next year.

Andy

And finally:

Congratulations to Liam for pipping Timmy and Fergus to finish top scorer with 19 goals.

A big thank you to Cynthia and Calvin’s Nan for having made excellent teas all season.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the 1^st team this year – hopefully we can put in bigger and better performances in the league above next season.