Badgers Vs Sikh Union Badgers

Coventry Sikh Union Badgers 3 v 0 Yardley Hockey Badgers

This week Yardley hastily arranged a different fixture, once we discovered Sutton had dropped one of their two teams from the league.

Coventry kindly offered our Badgers an away game at their very fancy Cauldron Castle Leisure Centre Astro pitch. It was an early morning 10.30 am push back. As one car with seven players arrived at (10.05am) we were warmly welcomed by the hosts and saw twenty youngsters going through drills and training routines.

Our six players passed the ball around and the keeper Sean got kitted up. The Yardley coach then began calling the third car to get a location report. Traffic meant that they may arrive just after push back. The hosts offered loan players and even held the start time by 5 minutes. We then had two more players arrive so decided to start the game with nine and defend deep, holding up play until the four other players got through the traffic jam.

The team was nervous but for three minutes they defended excellently. Winning possession in midfield and controlling the middle of the pitch. Soon afterwards the cavalry arrived and the visitors were back to a full eleven with two subs on the side line ready to rotate every five minutes.

The first half was all Yardley. Yardley gained possession in the middle of the pitch and for 27 minutes dominated with skilful hockey. Good accurate passes, great tackling and good solo runs.  The team won virtually every 50/50 ball. The wide players for Yardley pushed down the wings at every opportunity. This resulted in many shots at goal for Yardley. With eight minutes to go in the half the home team got their first shot a goal. It was a reverse shot rising rapidly to the top of the net. Sean was in goal after enjoying last Sunday’s County Tournament and had another “go in-goal”. He managed to jump high to this rising reverse shot and got a stick to this goal-bound ball. A fabulous powerful shot saved by a brilliant jumping reflex save. The home team got a few more chances in the final minutes of the half but the Yardley defence orchestrated by Muhammad foiled these attacks. Both teams went in the break goalless, with Yardley again discussing at the break our missed chances. It was also mentioned that certain opponents were swearing and being verbally abusive.

The home team’s coach reorganised his team, strengthening his midfield and putting two forwards high against the Yardley backline. The Yardley midfield looked confused for five minutes about their formation and how the home team suddenly appeared more dominant. The Yardley backline defended bravely in these moments and were defending constantly with little midfield assistants. Then Ethan got hit by the ball as a shot went goal wards. He tried to run this injury off but finally had to sit the rest of the game out with badly swollen instep. Then Zak who fell awkwardly needed to be substituted to get his knee treated. These injuries hampered the Yardley formation and although the team played with eleven, the shape was all disjointed. The home team scored the game’s first goal, with a well taken penalty corner drag flick. Ayesha then felt faint and had a deserved rest on the side line. With ten minutes played in this half the Yardley Badgers midfield dropped their heads and felt deflated. The team stopped tracking back and it was only the strength of the back three that held the score to two more goals scored by the home team over running the backline.

 It soon became apparent that throughout the game certain players on the Coventry Sikh Union side had been using bad language and verbally abusing certain members of the Yardley squad. This gradually wore down visitors and really upset many Yardley players with some wanting to be substituted or even going behind their own defensive line to get away from the verbal abuse. With the team now 3-0 down and still twenty minutes to go, it could have turned into a massive defeat. Paul the Captain finally discovered what was happening on the pitch and he tried to emphasise that the opponents were targeting our star players to destabilise our shape and good play. The team soon all rallied with fifteen minutes to go and gave no quarter to the home team and got a hold of the game and were unfortunate not to score a couple of goals in this period with the home team getting no chances in the “D”. Paul the Captain was proud of how the Yardley team regrouped after the unsporting tactics of the home team. All the Yardley players supported one and other in this period. They tried hard to ignore the unsporting constant verbal abuse the home team felt they had to use. The team didn’t even want to shake hands at the final whistle, but with their Yardley away supporters, parents and Coach insisting (all saying “we would only be as bad as they are”) they all did shake hands and also went back to the café and had lovely pizzas and drinks from the hosts.