MP-C writes:

Scorers: Rob Belsher (2), Simon W, Mike P-C

The first official league game of the season due to the last one having to be abandoned due to faulty and dangerous goals. There was a youthful look to the side as the average age must have been 41 and we had a combined age of 441, but, what we might have lost in youthful looks we gain with experience and cunning.

This season’s new captain had experimented during the friendlies on formation and player’s positions just like some of the great coaches and managers of the past and had come up with a new cunning plan; packing the middle as we had no pace in the side! Bruce was promoted to LB as it was general agreed that trying him in every other position had not brought the best out of him.

The game started with the normal tempo as PR tried to roll up the pitch in a blitzkrieg style gradually winning free hits until they would be in a position to attack the oppositions D. However, with the lone striker due to some players having the inability to read time and get on the pitch when the first whistle was blown, the team looked more like a WW1 tank than a perfect engineered German Tiger! Therefore, we stalled like the Greeks attacking Troy and had to figure out another way of breaking their defences.

But we were soon to discover that the opposition defence feel for Greeks bearing gifts as on the first opportunity of getting into the D we won a short. This was defended well apart from the opposition Hercules running into our forwards and was poleaxe on the floor with blood gushing from his nose! MP-C commented well that’s one way to win lets see if we can injury the three other subs! On the second attempt of the short the 3rds remembered that passing the ball around the D and laying it of to the bloke unmarked at the back post is indeed a very cunning plan and there we where one nil up thanks to the Rob Belsher. Our luck was changing as then we managed to get our numbers up to 11 and an Umpire too!

The game then became a battle in the midfield with either side fighting for supremacy and trying to keep the ball and make the opportunity for the forwards to pressure either sides D. Wycombe managed to break the deadlock and after a St Tinian’s goal mouth scramble and in the view of MP-C the keeper was hacked at like a lumberjack clearing trees, the ball was squeezed under Alex’s body.

But then from the off PR were fired up and some lovely interplay between the backs and midfield the ball came nicely to Bill Edgar and he powered his way through the Wycombe defence. He darted left and right, pivoted like a teenage ballerina and you could see the a man who had just got off a plane from New York after saving his Bank from going under had one more thing to prove! He got to the top of the D and passed the ball to MP-C who received it with such skill and spun around and let the ball be slotted into the left hand corner and it was 2-1.

Wycombe then scored the best goal of the game as a player was not picked up the top of the D and Wycombe played a quick free hit to him and his first stoke slotted the ball in the bottom corner.

The 2nds half was much the same. A battle in the Midfield as two heavy weights slugged it out to get killer blow as the next goal could make or break the sides. Rob Belsher could have made the game safe as he had opportunity after opportunity as the forwards went one on one, two on one against the keeper but it was agonising close but still the score stayed the same. It was looking like all the pressure and better hockey was not going to give PR the result they deserve. Wycombe knew they were beat and started to play a dirty game and it was lucky that they kept their players on the pitch. Then disaster, as Bill Edgar mentioned at the start “watch the old fella up front, he does nothing all game and will poach a goal near the end!” and guess what? As true to Bills words he did, a free hit on the 25yrd came flying in and the old fella diverted the ball and it was 2-3. Then the proverbial did hit the fan and the game got a little nastier and at a higher level with more confident umpires both sides would have been down to nine.

This indiscipline in Wycombe ranks did help as a short corner was won by P&R. From this a shot in by Shanta came off the keepers pads as he dived down. Then like a whippet down a pipe (ok I know it hard to imagine) Simon W fired a rapier off the post and it crept over the line and it was 3-3.

A few minutes later and some great inter-play from the whole team, Pete T to John H, out to Bruce around the back to Marcus, a strong run by Si W from a neat pass by Bruce. PR kept the ball and finally the slow but forward movement worked as we kept possession and won free hit after free hit and finally a long ball to the back post Rob B was hacked down and a short corner was awarded.

With only a few minutes in the clock the short was expertly injected by MPC, stopped by Shanta and then he slipped it to Rob who slapped the ball into the goal from such an acute angle that there was an eruption of applause from the 1st men’s side watching the game. Then PR held on will some excellent defending and interplay and should have got two more goals with further two against one as they got the opposition on the break. MP-C took one for the team and wasted time as he was rolled around the floor after a high ball was deflected via his knee.

The game finished at 4-3 to PR. It was a hard battle and the score did flatter the opposition whose goal keeper kept them in the game. With further match fitness and more accuracy with our finishing the 3rds’ could do well this season but there is still a long way to go and I am sure there were some cold baths and massages required for some old weary bodies including the authors.