Men's 4s claim a point amidst drama

03/10/2020

Brox Mens 4s 3-3 St Albans Mens 8s

Well this game certainly had plenty of drama. The Mens 4s went into the second game of the season looking to bounce back from their loss last week, but the odds were put very much against them.

With only 11 players in the squad (including Simon White playing his first game of hockey) the early injury to Andy Harris meant that they had to play much of the first half with 10 men (and the second half with a spirited but largely immobile 11th player). St Albans capitalised well on this and went into the half time break 3-0 up.

While the scoreline could have got increasingly worse for Broxbourne as the game progressed, this was thankfully not to be. A fantastic second half display enabled them to get on level terms with a small amount of time to spare. Bobby Dyer scoring two goals and Lee Richards the other. Incredibly, there was a small sense of disappointment at not being able to get the victory. Though with a potentially sizable defeat being a prospect at half time, to come away with a point is a great accomplishment.

Notably, the drama was not just limited to the actual playing of the game. Feisty confrontations between a few individuals and spectators resulted in a yellow card and a couple of green cards being shown, along with a stoppage of play for a stern telling off from the umpires when things seemed to be at risk of boiling over.

Thankfully the Mens 4s managed to not get distracted by it all, to see out a well fought draw. Interestingly, the next game is also against St Albans. Their Mens 7s will travel to Broxbourne like their counterparts today. After the events of the game this evening, a nice, straight-forward victory for Broxbourne would certainly be very much appreciated next week.