Badgers Vs Solihull Blossomfield

Solihull Blossomfield 1 v 0 Yardley Badgers

Yardley again fielded two adults, Anthony in goal with Paul, Islam and Jeevan sharing the defensive midfield roll. Blossomfield started with one adult and no keeper.  Both teams where pretty evenly matched size wise and age wise.

The game started with Blossomfield having strong attacks against the Yardley Badgers. The home team drew the defenders towards the ball then passed well to the overlapping forwards. They also got the ball out wide effectively and got good crosses in. The Yardley defence held strong but the pressure was intense for ten minutes. Aeysha the central defender swept up most of the danger in the "D" and had an excellent game in the back three. Jack and Edan supported her really well and refused to get flustered. The back three weathered this barage and eventually Yardley got their passing game together and linked up with the whole team. 

The home team started without a keeper and Yardley unfortunately only got a few chances in the "D" for shots in the first half hour. The team got more and more into the game as time wore on. The midfield play by Zak and Barakah showed skilled tackling and technical dribbling. If they could have passed a little more we possibly could have used our wide players to attack down the channels.

After twenty minutes of play the home team won their first penalty corner, and their striker at the top of the "D" hit a low powerful drive which hit the back board beating keeper and the players on the line.

It soon became end to end hockey with each team getting chances in the "D". Eventually the home team fielded their keeper who made some good saves against our forwards Thomas and Vinnie.

Yardley never gave up and began to work on getting the ball out to the wide players. This stretched the home team and we again got into dangerous areas more frequently.

At half time the main talking point was to pass more quickly and to utilise the wide players at every opportunity. 

The team took all the points on boards and with the wide players of Evie and Dawood seeing more of the ball Yardley started to get ahead of the game and looked the more likely to score. Anthony in goal only had one save to make (in this half) a running out diving save, unfortunately he took out one of our defenders too. Aeysha came tumbling over the keeper and fell awkwardly, but was unhurt, poor Anthony made the save but hurt his knee in the tumble. He bravely carried on for the final ten minutes. The two forwards for Yardley of Thomas and Vinnie played in a deeper roll this week getting ready for rapid breakaways to use their pace against the aging defensive adult. Throughout the game they positioned themselves correctly and were always alert for fast responses. When they held the ball they waited for supporting players to overlap. It was unfortunate the team couldn't get higher into the "D" to overrun the home team’s defence and get a deserved equaliser in the final ten minutes.

The whole team should be proud both as a collective and on an individual level. A competitive game of hockey from evenly matched sides, it was a shame about the final score line but the Captain was tremendously happy about the ever improving performances.

We now go into the Christmas break so take a deserved rest and see you all fresh in the New Year.