Match Report: Men's 1 vs Berkswell & Balsall Common 1 (Friendly)

The final men’s 1s game of pre-season saw a team of 11 take on Berkswell. The Berkswell team were in theory from the division we were just relegated from, but in reality a mixed team of their 1s and 2s (they also had a bare 11).

The heat took its toll on both sets of players but Harborough settled well, with James calling the shots from a new managerial role. Thankfully his face remained unharmed throughout so his fiancé will, we must assume, be pleased with the wedding photos next weekend as the dreaded black eye did not materialise. Good luck to James – I hope the suit fits and the speech goes well. James’ new formation really got the best out of the attacking players, particularly Josh and Owen. Mark “20 goals a season” Cunningham must now be worried about competition for places amongst the forwards. He was suspiciously quiet when the short corner routine was discussed which makes me worried that the purported killer instinct of a Van Nistelrooy is actually more like that of a Heskey. Harborough were ahead within 10 minutes as Owen and Josh combined well. There were patches where we played some lovely intricate passes through the middle of the pitch and then some other spells where we were carved open alarmingly easily down the flanks with Alistair having to be alert in goal initially. Harborough were quickly 5-0 up though within half an hour. Josh, Cam and Sam getting in on the act and Owen adding his second with a reverse stick effort. I wonder when he has been practicing those? Cam’s goal in particular was a very speedy break which looked almost like we had drilled sprinting the whole length of the pitch with short passes several times before.

Berkswell pulled one back after some awful miscommunication down Harborough’s right side. I won’t make any excuses, but Seb was still nursing his sore back and Alex had been up since 5am. But again, no excuses.

Harborough kept the all-important 5 goal cushion after a slick short corner (which is a phrase I was not expecting to type). Josh’s shot from the top was tipped in by Alex at the backpost.

The game fizzled out as both sets of 11 were stifled by the heat. Then the heaven’s opened to biblical proportions, and as the lightning lit the dark, mid-afternoon sky Billy wisely looked around at 22 men carrying long sticks and ended the match with 6 minutes left.

A successful final outing for the men’s 1s with Cam and Sam pressing hard on the wings and making some incisive runs. Mike had a solid game in the centre of midfield – he can turn on a sixpence. Ads and Jack buzzed about to great effect in defence. Let’s hope we can replicate this level after the long haul flight to Mansfield next Saturday.