Badgers Vs KIngswinford

We arrived for the first game if the new season and it must have been one of the wettest games I have played in for a long time.  As the Kingswinford coach was sweeping off puddles from the Astro corners, I offered to help broom the puddles in our “D”. One of our cars was stuck in traffic so Kingswinford kindly offered us two players so the game could start in the heavy rain.

We have three players moving up to the second team this season and we have brought in some new players from our Satellite schools. This week Anthony and James from KESH Academy debuted. They played at the back and never put a foot wrong. It was a fantastic debut from both of them and they look a promising prospect for the coming season. After five minutes the rest of our team arrived and we thanked our loan players and our team them took its full line up.

Our Badgers were never daunted by the opposition who were all taller and older except for a few substitutes who rotated. Kingswinford also played with two adults who managed to thwart most of our attacks. Sean tackled strongly and fairly and won more possession than as expected. Buoyed by this our other Badgers battled hard and also won tackles and pressed hard to win possession or close down space well. It was a slightly scrappy first half by both teams who were struggling with the conditions and adapting to the new season.

Our midfield was centrally controlled by Aeysha and Edan. They took charge of the midfield and pressed hard and used a very intelligent use of space whether off the ball or on it. They linked the wide players getting Ethan and Zak into the game and combined with the front players of Sean and Barakah.

Second half both teams got into better shape and played better hockey. Yardley’s interlinking at times was fantastic to watch from the back with sharp short passes spreading the play rapidly from one side of the pitch to the other. We had many chances in this half and the Kingswinford keeper saved the shots well. The home team had chances throughout too as it was “end to end stuff”. The home team’s striker was unlucky not to get a hat trick as he was on the back post on the receiving end of excellent crosses but missed each opportunity. As the game wore on the play was even more stretched and Yardley’s defence was exposed on many occasions. Eventually this pressure resulted in a defensive error (myself) and the Kingswinford striker hit the loose ball into the far corner giving Jack little chance as he valiantly dived to the correct side.

To their credit Yardley didn’t drop their heads and naturally pushed high up the pitch to get an equaliser with even Anthony and James our left and right backs getting into the home team’s 23m. Our pressure resulted in our best period of the game and got three chances with the best falling to Barakah after three shots at the keeper within five seconds and the final ball falling to Barakah but it went agonisingly wide. It was an even game and Kingswinford slightly edged it and deserved the 1-0 victory. But Yardley battled hard and should take great pride in the performance of the first game of the 2016/17 season.