Sandy Skool Brox 4's

Match Report vs Shefford and Sandy
This was a must win game. Our form going into the game was very good indeed; we were at the top of the table and we were flying high. However, our next game was no easy one – a home fixture against an in form Shefford and Sandy team. We couldn’t take this game for granted and boy was it eventful, for all of the wrong reasons…
From the word go it looked like we weren’t playing our greatest hockey in the world; we were very lacklustre and lethargic when it came to passing the ball and dishing it out from the back. We knew that they had a very experienced team, with both old and young in the opposing starting eleven to give our defence a torrid time. We simply couldn’t get it out of our own half. Yes, we did have a couple of chances but they didn’t really seem to be clear cut chances. However there was a couple of chances to take not of – one being a great threaded through pass from Matt Rudd into the path of Ed House who smacked the ball inches wide of the right hand post. The second being confusion in the oppositions D where the ball ricocheted off of a couple of sticks, bounced in front of Matt Rudd to hit it in mid-air. To his astonishment, he thought he had scored due to the sheer pace of the ball from the moment he hit it, unluckily though, the keeper saved – although you could tell he wasn’t expecting it.
The pressure kept mounting onto the Broxbourne defence, this lead to an unlucky short corner – a sloppy mistake which lead to a Broxbourne foot. As this was Shefford's first short corner, we didn’t really know what to expect. But we certainly knew what to expect from the next one due to a very well worked drag flick into the back of the net. 1-0 to the visitors.
After the first goal, we got into the game, passing and moving the ball well and getting into the oppositions head. We had the majority of possession for the next 10 minutes or so, however our defence was at fault again and they got another short corner. Their star drag flicker was on the top of the D... any takers on where the ball went after the corner was taken? Yep... the back of the net, 2-0 down.
It didn’t get any better from there, Shefford were purely the better team, playing some great passing and moving style hockey, moving into the space where necessary. They had another short corner due to some dubious decisions by the umpires with half time looming. Any takers on where this one was going? Yep, back of the net again, but not from their spectacular flicker, a slip to the guy on the left who only had to push it in did the job to end a disastrous half for the Badgers.
The second half started, and with a rather stern half time talk from captain Matt Cassling, things seem to be going our way. We played some nice hockey and looked like the better team for the majority of the half, we actually got a goal back right at the death, with Tim sneaking in at the back post to lift it over the keeper – a very nice goal indeed, but this only proved to be a consolation after yet another couple of short corner drag flick goals from their superstar player; 4 goals coming from short corners in 70 minutes – a disastrous performance from the defence for the Badgers.
Next up a challenging, tough and gruelling match (and journey) away to Berkhampsted; another tough fixture for the Badgers with the Badgers one point behind Berkhampsted, me must not take this game for granted as we know it will be a tough game from the outset.
Training on Wednesday, as per usual.
By Matthew Rudd.