Badgers Vs Stratford

Yardley 1 v 5 Stratford

Goal scorer: Dawood

Yardley were very wary about this fixture as Stratford beat us by a big margin last month. This return fixture Yardley players who were absent last time out were all fully fit. Yardley fielded two adults whilst Stratford looked to be all youth players. Stratford’s vast majority of players were all much older and taller than Yardley’s' mixture of age ranges and experience.

The first half was very even and both teams shared possession evenly. Stratford scored a goal early in the half from a penalty corner. The shot from the top right of the “D” looked to be going wide but the injector of the penalty corner was at the near post to tap in the first goal. This could have proved ominous to the home team after the last meeting, but to Yardley’s credit they played a strong solid game of hockey. After the Stratford goal the home team pushed high and got five good chances in the opponent’s “D”. Unfortunately, each shot was snatched at, with no real power produced making the saves easy for the Stratford keeper. The play in the middle of the pitch was pretty even for the whole of the first 35 minutes, with each team’s possession equal. In fact, after the visitors’ first goal the keeper was never called into make a save in this period, unlike the opposite number.

Second half started in similar fashion with Yardley getting an early equaliser which was well deserved as the home team began to control the midfield for a ten-minute period. It culminated in another good goal from Dawood who was in the right place as the ball dropped in the “D” from a deflection to score a well hit goal. Stratford looked in this period a little shaky and Yardley pushed harder to look for the lead.

Eventually Stratford switched tactically and strategically pushing higher onto the Yardley defenders. The high press made it very hard for the excellent passing from the back by the home team. Until then they enjoyed passing from defence through the wide midfielder players and utilising the wings to good advantage earlier in the game.

This brought long spells of pressure on the home team and Stratford began to win many penalty corners. Although Yardley defenders worked hard to clear the dangers many times the long periods of constant pressure eventually told and the keeper made errors of judgement four times gifting the visitors a flattering score line. Without a shadow of doubt if our keeper from the previous week had been  available Yardley could quite honestly have drawn or even won this game. The errors from the team captain playing in goal were elementary mistakes. The Captain made his apologies after the game and explained that being his first game in goal for one year made the team vulnerable.

This to me was a very strong performance by Yardley against the strongest team in the Badgers division. For long periods the team were on an equal footing in the midfield, battling hard to gain possession and passing the ball wide to the unmarked wide players. The whole team worked together and looked the most dangerous when they passed the ball around in a flowing fashion. “Letting the ball to the work” never displayed so fluently than in the middle period of the game.  Stratford had to work so much harder than in the previous encounter against Yardley and at one point were on the back foot.

The team deserved better of their keeper in this game and players were deflated after all the hard work they had put in during the game. But each player should look at their individual and team performance and be proud. Admittedly the score line looks like a comprehensive defeat but the performance was anything but.

A few lessons must be learnt by the home team to develop as a group and help to convert more goals in the future:-

Stratford always had an extra player on the back post for the simple tap in. The player didn’t just sit on the post. They drifted in tangent to the attackers on the opposite side of the goal. Ready to pick up any scraps that may present themselves. (In this game there were many).

When Stratford pressed high, they attacked as a group of 3 - 5 overrunning the defence, getting players forward of the ball to be a pass option or a distraction to the defenders.

Once a Stratford player got into the “D” their first thought was shoot at goal. Shoot with power and  lift to get the ball high into the net over defenders’ sticks.

If Yardley Badgers continue to develop as a unit and trust in each other's ability, results will start to equate to the performances.