Boys U14 V Oxford Boys U14B

Great morning for hockey and going into our first Oxfordshire League game the boys were well prepared to battle with Oxford.
In our first league game of the season we had a squad of 14 players and 2 keepers to work with and built well of the 2 pre-season games.
We went 1-0 down in the first 30s which was not planned but fought back well to go into half time 1-2 (a well worked PC goal from Charlie to Olly). Sadly we gave away 2 further goals and went down 4-1 following the break. This seemed to spur us into action and we forced Oxford into defensive mode – We pressed well and Barney found the net working well with Theo and Louie. With 5’ to go we pulled another goal back via Jasper (his first for Thame) and then at the death had a few PCs which were close but sadly not converted.
So we went down 3-4 – A fair result for our first game.
Lost of positives to take from the match – We pressed well and forced many errors, we ran at the opposition well, we played well as a team and worked as a squad, we held good shape in an advanced 2-3-5 attacking formation, we had plenty of PCs where we hit the target.
A few things to work on as always: All our goals were concede thru careless errors and passing the ball across the D or directly to the opposition – Once we cut these out and use the width and fitness to our advantage we won’t look back.
I'll be thinking about investing in some red socks for the boys so when we do play against similar coloured teams in the future, we can use them to our advantage.
Thanks to Alex Yeung for supporting the coaching and team talks, Becs Owen Gardner and Robert Broadhurst for their balanced umpiring, Nanette Dart for the photos and to the parents who supported the boys this afternoon. We all appreciate this