Men’s 2s 4 - 1 Brighton & Hove 1s (H)

That famous old adage, ‘the home is where the heart is’,  was never more evident than Sunday 22nd September 2024 when the M2s returned to Sugden Road to kickstart their Conference East campaign. It didn’t feel so homely when Dewi on Thursday night came over from M1s training and started shouting at us all about what to do on PCA and PCD; you’ll find out later why shouting at people isn’t always the way to get the best out of them. Anyway, the return of the hockey season is a special feeling, made even more special when Beanhead turned up with his smile, his wife and Bagel, what a treat. Honestly, what a guy.

The lads gathered in the changing room like campers around a fire pit - and you could definitely feel the heat. Some new, some old, and some new old faces (I’ll let you work that one out), eagerly awaiting the delivery of Super Frankie’s team talk and revolutionary tactics of ‘win’. Let’s see how that goes.

I must admit, I wasn’t sure how this was going to play out. One team was warming up with medicine balls and bands and plyometric work and what looked like a game of netball without the nets. If you were there or watching the Livestream (yes – all games this weekend were on the SHC You Tube channel – even the Sunday M2), then you’d understand what I mean. Anyway, they looked READY and up for it. The other team were warming up by watching one of their own team do his own warm up routine that he has clearly obtained from a far more elite performance environment than he were perhaps about to play in, no disrespect to anyone I promise. I’ll let you decide which team was which.

Onto the hockey, it was a bizarre first ten minutes or so, with both teams figuring out the orientation of the other team’s on and off the ball intentions. The only thing that was abundantly clear is that modern warfare has changed significantly. It felt like the RAF were delivering the ball into our half before we could blink and some good reactionary defending was probably the reason the scores were level. That is until the first penalty corner was awarded for the good guys. Some neat work in the circle and the umpire, rather elegantly, raised both arms to chest height in the direction of the goal and blew the whistle, bingo. Injection comes out, right on the money……now comes the tough bit, will Beanhead trap the ball? Who knows? Beanhead answered the critics in emphatic style like he often does by stopping the ball on a sixpence. If you thought it was questionable whether Beanhead would trap the ball, it’s even more questionable whether Males would flick the ball anywhere near the goal. The best thing about life is that you can always have hope, if you don’t have hope, you have very little. Sometimes it’s wise to have very little hope to avoid disappointment but that’s a different discussion. The reason hope is so important is because sometimes miracles happen, and in this case Males flicked the ball not just anywhere near the goal but actually in the goal. Yes, there were defenders and a goalkeeper. Moral of the story, always have hope. 1-0 Seals, love it.

The game ebbed and flowed and it seemed that when Surbiton didn’t ‘do anything stupid’ (I thought this was harsh but never mind), we seemed to have decent success. The issue with that is that some of our players seem to actually enjoy the thrill of doing something ‘stupid’ so it happened fairly often and there were a few scares. We can’t look at the umpire to complain about how they blow the aerial rule, when three of our defenders mistrap the same ball.

Scares? What scares? Billy Winter, who was wearing his shin pads the wrong way around (thank you Haspel, with observation skills like that you’ll go far, and now we know why the defenders were so confused), received the ball on the top of the D and rifled a reverse into the side netting. Again, hope is the most important thing, miracles do happen and sometimes they arrive like London buses. 2-0 Seals, love it more.

I hope you haven’t taken what I’ve said literally, because as we all know, it’s the hope that kills you. I say this because Dewi decided he would jump in on the act of doing something questionable by kicking the ball in the air and giving away a PC. As the PCD unit got flashbacks to Dewi’s lecture/monologue from Thursday night. Is shouting at people the best way to get them to do something well? The flick somehow goes past the number 1 runner, controversial topic as to why but never mind. The post man didn’t deliver on this occasion and instead did his best Elsa impression, frozen. 2-1, Seals, don’t love it. Half time 2-1.

Second half was pretty boring, two goals from Ding (Scott Pearce, made his debut after joining from ReaDing). Well actually one goal from Ding and one from Will Haspel, but Ding claimed it and has somehow been credited with it. It’s good to get encourage competition among the strikers, but stealing a goal off a colt and then not being available next weekend, no words.  My money’s on a double from Haspel!

Undisputed POM: Max Anderson (new), a lesson as to why you should always warm up properly. Cheat code.

Social POM: Scott Evans, shock. Nothing changes but Crofty, Mia and the dog were there to witness it.

DOD: Dewi: one shot one goal amongst other things (shouting at everyone etc) and Morgs, ‘for being Morgs’, brutal.

4-1 win Seals, loving it. See you all next Saturday for an early evening PB at West Herts.