Bedford 2’s  2 – 1 Old Southendian 2’s
 
The Old Boys started the game optimistically with 2 subs (for the first time this season!), playing an opposition who despite having faced the furthest journey in the league had still managed to bring as many players as we had. Still this was the best chance that the we'd had at a win from the first 4 games.

The game had started off well with breaks and chances from both teams before a stick tackle from outside the D gave Bedford their first short corner of the game, which they proceeded to convert despite the backlines best effort. Soon after however the boys got a break and for the first time this season had scored in the first half of a game from a slick near post finish courtesy of MotM Toby Jordan. Following this we had a contingent of short corner failures with a 0/~5 successful injection rate. This was followed by the opposition then scoring and converting from another short corner following their ability to inject a ball.

Before the stroke of half time the boys had managed to get another short corner with a semi- successful injection leading to the ball finding its way in the back of the goal as the boys thought we had equalised. Unfortunately for us the reason the injection was unsuccessful was as it never left the D leading to a long corner given. At halftime we trailed 2 - 1.5, but spirits were still high and lifted by the question of how long 1 half of a hockey match is from Dermot.

Into the second half now, we started full of optimism and managed to find ourselves with a short corner just after the break only to find that the opposition goalkeeper had poured our watering can out, not that it would make a difference to the already overall poor and unsuccessful short corners and injections which consistently just weren’t good enough. Throughout the second half both teams struggled: ourselves with putting the ball in the back of the goal and Bedford with getting into the D due to some either heroic or idiotic feats of defending displayed by myself (Asa Nash) as the ball was aerialed from the opposition half into the D and instead of picking the ball down calmly and passing into space I ran at the ball, jumped and volleyed the ball out of the air into open space. After deciding that one successful attempt wasn’t enough I decided to gamble my luck again and as the next ball was chucked in the air into our D I proceeded to do the same thing, despite not leading to a goal or any opposition chances, this granted me nominations for both Man Of the Match and Jacket of Shame for which I proceeded to win the Jacket via a traditional skandi-off.

At some other point during the half, Adam called for the ball from Jacket and was declined. Most people assumed it was due to general distrust of Adam on the ball (especially within the defensive third), but there was actually another reason being Adam was not in fact stood on the pitch but rather off the sideline leading to questions after the game as to whether Adam is spatially unaware or had developed an individual and temporary case of red-green colour blindness. Luckily we came to our senses and decided Adam is and always has been spatially unaware. Unfortunately, the second half finished 0-0 and the final official score of 2-1 to Bedford was decided, despite the unlucky result of the match our inability to finish our chances led to an undeserved loss. Fortunately we only conceded 2 and still managed to score keeping up the 2’s new motto of “We Will Score” and also avoided the Jesus crash outs of which we had 14 against Upminster. Due to the difficulty of cooking chips and serving teas demonstrated by Myself and the oven (which I would like to shift at least 50% of the blame towards) I have been accused of prioritising food over Skandis. I have lessons to learn.

MotM – Toby Jordan
Jacket – Asa Nash