South 2nds recorded a second straight comfortable victory in their pre-season, this time against MBDA (who are our old friends at BAe, with a snazzy new name).

The visitors had turned up with only ten men due to late dropouts, so with South having 12 available, Paul South, as starting sub, became an honorary aeronautical engineer for the afternoon. Even then, MDBA began with only 10 as one of their remaining players was caught up in the heavy weekend traffic and didn’t make it until midway through the first period. With the disruption in the visiting teams ranks caused by all this, it was perhaps little surprise that South ran them ragged in the opening period. A high press kept the ball trapped in the attacking third for long periods, with the 2nds passing again looking superior to last season in picking holes in the defensive line.

South soon opened the scoring; Simon ‘goal thief’ Ta was at it again, adding a little deflection to strike partner Rob’s shot from high in the circle. Typical Simon goal, stealing in front of a ‘keeper on his line. It might have gone in without the touch, but Simon made certain. Our second was a direct result of the continuing pressure, as play broke down in the MDBA circle, only for the ball to break to Gareth who swept home on the reverse, and whooped a typical war cry to celebrate. South scored the game killer before the break, and it was the best of the lot; Andy took a free from the left line, finding a great crossfield pass into Matt’s path as he burst in from his right wing position. Matt won the battle for the ball with Paul (playing for the oppo remember), to be on the penalty spot, ball at his feet. From there, a beautifully dug out reverse stick flick went high into the corner of the net.

The talk at half-time was about playing good hockey, and trying to put into practice the theories and tactics we train on (more on that latter). The second stanza was to prove a more even affair as legs tired under the 25-degree sun. The play was now swinging end to end (i.e. both midfields were blowing a bit), with one particularly rewarding outlet for the hosts coming from centre-back Dave M feeding right winger Matt. Such play, via right-back Jan, had Matt and sweeper Jack exchanging passes in the best move of the match, only for the ‘keeper to foil Rob’s final shot.

Whilst that attack failed, attacks down the right flank brought South’s final two goals of the game, first Dave M driving upfield and feeding Simon, who dribble round the front of the defence to work himself a gap for a reverse stick flick across the ‘keeper into the far corner and then another break from Matt finding Rob in the circle; the busy visitors ‘keeper stopped Rob’s shot only to see the ball break free for Simon to tap in his hattrick goal.

Back to tactics. As part of the new commitment to letting the ball do the work, there was an emphasis at halftime on using the back four to switch the ball from one flank to the other. A couple of opportunities to do this had been noticeably passed up in the first half with balls going back to the line they had started out on, into crowds of players. But then someone (see the Lemon of the Match award for likely suspects) had to try and take it too far, didn’t they? A sideline hit in South’s own 25 was hit square to centre-back Dave M. Fine if he had been in twenty yards of space, instead of standing with an opposition player within touching distance of him. “A graveyard pass” was the apt description of it latter. Dave tried his best, but it broke free for an MDBA player to shot past an utterly exposed Jon (who hadn’t conceded since December ’06, so was not best pleased by such defensive suicide).

However, that was but a little black spot on an otherwise bright sun. Once again the Seconds controlled a match against opposition they have had tough battles with in previous meetings. Chances were created, goals were scored, new player to the club Dave Bartram made his debut at right-back and looked the part. We face a tricky final friendly at Kettering 2’s, who have always been a decent team, which will provide another excellent marker of where the side are before the league gets underway on the 29th.