Men's 4s captain Gordon Smith in action for Men's 5s in a 3-2 loss against Stoke Green, 24.10.2020. Photo credit - Manjit Pardesi
Sherjeet Khan in action for Men's 5s in a 3-2 loss against Stoke Green, 24.10.2020. Photo credit - Manjit Pardesi
Sidney in action for the Men's 5s - photo credit Manjit Pardesi
AHC Vice President Raminder Vig in action for Men's 5s in a 3-2 loss against Stoke Green, 24.10.2020. Photo credit - Manjit Pardesi
4s: P8 W2 D1 L5 F15 A22; position 10th from 12.
5s: P6 W3 D0 L3 R14 16.
Although necessarily fragmented, both the 4s and 5s can look back positively on the season so far.
Adding a development 4s team was ambitious but, more often than not, the 4s have played good hockey and with real heart to compete in the MBBO Div 8. It hasn't been easy though to provide the experience and game nous to effectively help a very talented group of young players and the 4s squad next season has to be better resourced and planned.
The ridiculous trip to Northampton meant half a 5s team and the first and last of the 8 games played were similarly affected. The last game though – the 1-0 defeat against Marlow – was a pretty good performance overall. The two wins were a 6-2 drubbing of Maidenhead, and a strong team beat Eastcote 2 1 with a commendable draw against Slough Despondents (and their two ancient GB players). That game was both fun and difficult to watch as it was loose and open but we outplayed Slough for most of the game. The visitors made far more of their possession and the 4s were indebted to Andy Ritchie in goal for the point. Louis Kinyanjui has been the standout player so far belying his inexperience to put in some immense midfield performances.
The 5s have equally shown real heart in their 6 games. An older team this season with less experienced younger players, but as usual they have pulled together and played as a team. Jacob Pallett, Chris Hutt and Jack Sutton have been our regular kids (and Sid Woolmore has also impressed in both 4s and 5s) and it's been great to see their game improve and confidence soar week on week.
We had our strongest side the first game and beat OWs comfortably but the better performance was next against canny Wallington. Held together by a twanging Hopper Long, a MOM performance and goal by Jacob Pallett (and very unfortunate with a couple of their goals), we came back from 0-3 to 3-3 only for our naivety to gift the oppo the win; but a good game and good performance. The boys were beaming over the Sunbury 2-1 win with over 40 years between our 2 goal scorers Louis and Dangerous. Though we got thumped by a too strong CTV team, we played back against them and showed real backbone.
Our last game was awesome, a really good game against our neighbours Staines full of enterprising play by both teams. Very open, it must have been great fun for the 40 or so spectators watching. On paper, they should have won but on the pitch we did. Goals from Kulvir (a very hard slap from just inside the D), two amazingly cool finishes (and debut Saturday goals) from Jack and Chris, plus a top team performance/stellar second half gave the 5s the win and a real high to finish off 2020.
Gordo & Peter
