 The Under 16 Boys cup team had a great opportunity to begin their England Hockey Tier 1 Championhips campaign with their first pool match against Amersham & Chalfont at the National Sports Centre at Bisham Abbey. The weather was amazingly mild for mmid-October...
The team were well motivated for a hard game and to focus on good habits throughout the game. We had a strong start with lots of pressing and a lot of leads from Charlie, Hobie and Will T up front.
Within the first 10 mins we heaped masses of pressure on the Amersham back 4 and forced them to concede short corners.The first goal came from after Marc pounced on a rebound off the keepers pads to make it 1-0.
The boys kept up the pressure and with plenty of 3 D skills and we forced a number of saves from the Amersham keeper. Will T went close with a rock shot hitting the cross bar and a good pass t ball from Marc P saw a turn and shot from Will T just miss.
Hobie scored after a shot from Marc P to make it 2 – nil and Harry went close after a reverse shot skimmed the far post.
Then came a great team goal after Jake tidied up a break and played to Will S, then on to Harry and then Will Fi down the base line for Jasper to finished with a tap in.
Whilst we had the majority of possession there was a great save from Connor when Amersham hit us on the break. A strong half with lots of rotations and Ollie W playing in a number of positions and keeping it very simple, pass and move being the key tactic to maitain our fluency.
Start of the 2nd half was a scrappy beginning with a short corner being bundled in to make it 3-1. Hobie then back in it to make it 4-1 with a strong strike to the bottom left hand corner. A great bit of skill then opened up the midfield from Harry on the 25 yard line, then simple pass to Joel, then on to Hobie and then on to Charlie who squared the pass for Hobie to nearly sneak in at the far post. More great middle up play with Will Fi just missing far post
We had wave after wave of attacks opening space up. A great cross field pass from Toby set up another neat passing move which resulted in a short corner to make it 5-1 after neat interplay between Marc and Hobie. Toby whipped the ball in after a good save from the keeper off a drag flick.
We got two more before the end with a great goal after super work down the right with Ollie and neat finish from Will T to make it 6-1 and a well worked short corner to get a stroke converted by Will to make it 7-1.
The boys have plenty to work on but at times played some excellent hockey. We will continue to work hard on the basics at training and look forward to seeing them develop as a team.
Team – Hobie , Toby, Joel, Will S,Will Fi, Olly, Connor, Marc, Benjamin, Harry, Will T, Jake, Will T, Charlie V
Coach – Rob
Assisting – James, Martin | 
