Badgers Vs West Bromwich

West Bromwich Badgers 4 v 0 Yardley Badgers

The Captain/goalkeeper and Head Coach along with six of the team arrived minutes before push back. Mainly due to some players failing to show at the rendezvous at 9:30am for transport. (early meets are notorious for players oversleeping.)  No chance of any pre-warm up drills or practice, it was keeper’s kit on and straight into game mode. The early start didn’t dull the home team, in fact they had just finished their regular 9am -10:30am Badgers’ training session. They started brightly and made frequent runs through the middle. Yardley started with 9 and battled hard to defend their goal. West Brom very sportingly loaned us an adult defender, Steve  and keen skilful  Lily with five minutes played. They both helped settle our team and we soon stopped the constant attacks. The whole team worked hard and soon stifled many of the home team’s forays into our “D”.  Shamikh was playing as right back and along with John Ballard and Steve (West Brom loan) defended valiantly keeping shots at goal down to a handful. These the keeper cleared for the first twenty minutes. Our team shape was solid and the midfield again played with skill and confidence, mainly supporting our defence, but when chances came they tried to force the West Brom team onto the back foot. Another new player to our squad, Yasim made a confident run with the ball from just in side the opponents’ half, going straight to goal. He dribbled with good stick control, keeping ball close to stick. Unluckily the final defender got a tackle in.  Kyle and Ethan also showed their dribbling skills passing two or three opponents. These forays gave the defence chance to rest and reshape. Sean, Ethan, Nahidul and Wahaj battled bravely in the centre and constantly broke up play of the home team. With Kyle playing as a sweeper roll linking up the team. Each individual was never daunted by the opposition’s size or strength and made crunching tackles and dribbling runs through a much older group of players.

Our luck didn't hold out and after twenty-five minutes West Bromwich took a deserved lead. True to Yardley Badgers team spirit they never dropped their heads and they all kept working hard. In the final two minutes of the half West Brom got a scrappy goal which the keeper blames himself for, but the whole team’s first half performance was very good. Individually and as a whole unit working together.

Zach and John at half time praised the team’s work ethic and put a few tactical things in place for the next 30 minutes. Our main adjustment was again to get to ball wide and spread the play more.

Yardley now warmed up from 30 minutes’ game play started positively and made three or four forays into the attacking 23, winning three penalty corners in this period. We also managed to get three shots but alas none tested the keeper. But none the less it was positive stuff and a consolation goal would have been a decent return for all the team’s efforts. As the half wore on, the West Bromwich Badgers were getting more frustrated as their own attacks were either getting expertly saved by yours truly or our defenders put them off their balance (John). Again, after about twenty minutes the home team got another goal. This was a cracker from the top of the “D”, it was placed with power into the corner with pin point accuracy. Yardley again worked hard to get a consolation goal but in the final minute the home team’s fourth arrived from a dreadful keeper error as I lost my positional sense and left a gapping whole for the attacker to shoot at. (my apologies )

A good game of hockey, Yardley have thanked West Bromwich for the loan players as this certainly made it a more competitive game for both parties and will have tested each player’s ability than if it had been 9 v 11.