Berkhamsted 2s 2:2 Amersham & Chalfont 3s
It was a grey ominous overcast afternoon, when the Men’s 2s stepped onto the home of BHHHC hockey (Cow Roast) for the last match of the day. Only a handful of true diehard fans braved the weather – The Payton Party and The Savages. The sense of foreboding was heavy as Men’s 2 near the bottom of the table were taking on 2nd place, a ‘park the party bus’ in front of the goal was called for. After a rousing captain’s speech of Shakespeare and Winston Churchill quotes, we took to the field of play, eager to do our bit for King, Country and BHHHC.
The team set up with ‘Two Teas’ in goal (or for those uninitiated with the 2s nicknames – Haydn Drinkwater), a solid and wily defense, made up of Hugo Graham, Jamie Holderness, the skipper (Paul Kraft) and Jason Silver. A midfield consisting of age and beauty, OK just age…Rocky Savage, Duncan ‘Tupper’ Hodges and Dave ‘Dean Ashton look alike’ English. Upfront an attacking squadron of Roger Payton, Toby ‘Three goals’ Payton (although as we will see he falls short on his nickname) and Tom Hartmann. Support from the sideline consisted of Ethan Woods and Ed Goodwyn
Special thanks to the officiating crew of Liz Holderness and Roger Macklin, resplendent in their yellow strip or the yellow shirts of justice brigade as I have heard it called.
The first half was a whirl wind of Amerfont (as I can’t be bothered to type out Amersham & Chalfont) activity, showing their 2nd place credentials and the bountiful youth that their team consisted of. They probed and prodded our defensive wall looking for a weakness. The Lions (Men 2’s) held out for 15 minutes or so before the inevitable happened a loose ball in the D saw the ball somehow dribble past ‘Two Teas’ into the goal (0-1). Worst was to happen 5 or so minutes later when they made it 2, another soft goal, it looked like how many were the Amerfont going to score rather than could we get back in the game.
Now was the time for Rocky to step forward and from a short corner he fired towards the goal, the keeper parried back to Rocky, a second chance he was going to score, but no the keeper saved again and gave Rocky a third chance, this time he managed to get past the marauding keeper but lucky for us Toby ‘Three goals’ Payton was on hand to put the ball in the net (a poached goal, his Dad would have been pleased with) – 1-2! We were back in it; the fates were turning in our favour.
But no, Silver agilely cleared the ball from an affray in the D but went down as if shot. The diagnosis looked bad, the lad has knee problems and the worst was feared, however it was just a spot of bad, really bad cramp. Dave English / Dean Ashton came on at right back to take the place of inspirational Silver. We managed to hold out till half time, a one goal deficit (1-2) not bad after the foreboding weather and 2nd place credentials of the Amerfont. We were still in with a chance.
Paul K (aka The Skipper) told us to go out and win one for the country, with renewed confidence we re entered the hockey arena. Silver somehow resurrected taking his place at right back and pushing Dave English / Dean Ashton into midfield (he is a big lad but not wily enough for the Lions defensive wall).
We pushed, Amerfont deflected, several balls to the front trio failed to open them up. We pushed harder but it looked like this was it, we were going to go down 1-2 despite all of the hard work. There was some inspired defense from Man of the Match – Hugo who threw himself into his defensive duties like a mad man, a natural defender if this reporter has ever seen one before. Then Amerfont sliced us open and ‘Two Teas’ was called on to make an outstanding instinctive save, that kept us in the game (it was said by one wag that it was like watching a slower older Maddie Hinch, but true or not he had kept us in the game). Then all the hard work paid off – Tom started the ‘weave’ that saw Roger pass on the ball and cometh the hour cometh the main man – Toby ‘Three goals’ Payton, bang 2-2! There was a small smattering of applause from the handful of die-hard fans, with one commenting ‘that is my boy’ (a proud mother). We had 5 minutes to go and Toby ‘Three goals’ had only scored two, so we were set for the winner, but alas it was not to be. Despite much huffing and puffing we had managed a 2-2 draw (against 2nd place), a result to be proud off.
A good jumping off point to keep the fight alive in the relegation battle. With team morale and spirit like this we should be able to avoid relegation. Keep believing Lions, we will roar again.
Reporter: Jason Silver