West Herts 6’s: 0 Potters Bar 3’s: 2
Saturday 28th November 2009

The weather smiled (very slightly) on the Bar with the first dry match in the last week 3 weeks. This was just as well as Bar were to grace West Herts nice shiny new pitch, which can be best described as a cross between a trampoline and an artificial-ice skating rink!

Before the game even started an emergency formation change was required after umpire Alan was delayed due to car trouble. Peter Simmons came to the rescue as stand in umpire with Joe Dean moving from left back to Peter’s position of central left back and Tom Standon moving from striker to left back, stand in defence all sorted and minor crisis averted – we pride ourselves as being solutions focused in the 3’s!

The make shift defence almost suffered a setback within the first couple of minutes of the game. A well placed aerial from West Herts cleared the Bar back four and went straight to an unmarked West Herts attacker. Fortunately the ever improving Jordan in goal was on hand to deal with the one on one. Bar quickly bounced back from the early scare and soon got into their stride with majority of possession. John Hobbs was excellent once again as holding midfielder. Though the skipper had to curtail John’s enthusiasm to push forward by repeating the snappy mantra of “remember your defensive responsibilities Hobbs” half a dozen times until he came back to close the gap between defence and midfield. However defensive caution turned out not to be overly required with the ball spending most of its time in the West Herts' half, though Bar were unable to capitalise on a number of chances. However after around 20 minutes the Bar’s hard work was finally rewarded with youngster Praveen getting his second goal in as many games. His shot from just inside the D went in, after a neat ‘dummy’ from Simeon (we’ll call it that Simeon!) fooled a string of West Herts defenders and their keeper.

After around 30 minutes the originally planned back four was able to be formed after Alan fresh from car problems arrived to relieve Peter of his umpiring duties, enabling him to reform his centre back pairing with Dave Brandon. West Herts had a limited number of runs forward, but these were mostly comfortably dealt with by the back four.

For the rest of the first half another goal or two seemed inevitable with Hobbs, Alex Seeney and James Pearson bossing the midfield whilst Simeon, Praveen and Bradley provided constant running on the wings. The interchanging George and Tom up front were also giving the West Herts defence much to think about with their constant movement off the ball. Alas more goals didn’t materialise and the Bar went into the break just the one goal up.

Half time team talk, a summary: a quick brainstorming session to get the creative juices flowing, then the throwing of some crazy ideas against the wall to see what stuck, finished off by an open dialogue session to identify what low hanging fruit options were most strategically feasible. At the end of this the consensus was that we would try and score as many goals as we could in the second half – genius! The 3’s Massive Consulting Group Ltd is also now available to offer competitively priced strategic hockey solutions.

Suitably refreshed the 3’s went out hard from the outset of the second half to tie the game up, however this was more easily said than done with a combination of last ditch defending and excellent goal keeping from West Herts and less than clinical finishing from Bar thwarting the 3’s otherwise fine build up play. Finally after 15 minutes after the re-start James Pearson was the second player to make it 2 goals in two games, by neatly slotting a cross from Alex Seeney past the keeper. John Hobbs influence on the game was further highlighted when half way through the second half he went off for 15 minutes with a calf strain and immediately Bar’s midfield lost some of its previously solid shape. This gave West Herts several opportunities to get back in the game. However, through some solid defending from the back four of Dave Brandon, Peter Simmons, Joe Dean and Skipper, Steve, as well as the ever enthusiastic Jordan in goal managed to keep the home side at bay. During the remainder of the rest of second half Bar continued their dominance and were unlucky not to add a couple more goals.

However, this report cannot finish without a brief comment on short corners; with the majority of the half dozen or so that Bar had during the game leaving much to be desired, though better than last week this is not saying too much! More work required.

Anyway, another 3 points, a clean sheet, more promise shown from the youngsters and Bar’s strength in depth allowing the early formation change at the back to be incorporated seamlessly. Still third in the table, Div 9 South West of the Eastern League appears to be becoming somewhat of a three horse race with St Albans, Southgate Adelaide and the Bar starting to break away from the rest of the pack.