Men's 5th XI vs Old Loughtonians 5

Saffron Walden Men’s 5s 4–1 Old Loughtonians Men’s 5s

Expectations were not running at their highest as the Men’s 5s assembled for this one. The squad had been decimated by poor availability, several important players had been promoted by the 4s, and both captain and vice-captain were carrying injuries of varying degrees of credibility.

Last week’s glorious 8–1 demolition of St Ives suddenly seemed a rather distant memory. More disappointingly, the revolutionary tactical innovations which had worked so beautifully seven days earlier looked unlikely to survive first contact with Old Loughts..

There were practical problems. The midfield had been stripped of Paul Burch, Dave Johnson and Duncan Campbell, while John Hood had joined the side as a centre-forward — inconveniently occupying precisely the patch of turf where we had envisaged Rich Dear ploughing a lonely but productive furrow for much of the season.

Things began looking considerably brighter on Saturday morning, however, when Mike Gaughan arrived wearing full kit and a knee brace. This was notably more encouraging attire than one might expect from a man who had spent the week threatening to manage from the touchline.

The squad was further embellished by Jos, making a final appearance before returning to university, and Logan, squeezing in one last game before heading off for his first year. Seb, following an excellent club debut last week, remained in goal. And, to be fair, he’s pretty good. Stick saves n everyfink.

What followed was a proper battling 5s performance. There was effort everywhere, relentless chasing and harrying, real intensity in the press when we didn’t have the ball, and superb communication throughout.

Rich Dear opened the scoring after five minutes with an absolute rocket from the top of the D into the bottom-left corner. Apparently deciding he had found a weakness worth exploring, he then put the ball into essentially the same bit of goal twice more: once from a neat one-two at a penalty corner and once by ramming it home after some excellent pressing and disruption.

Rich’s rich vein of form, pleasingly, appears to be sticking.

Jos supplied the fourth with a tomahawk from the top of the D. John Hood had already drawn the goalkeeper out of position and then comprehensively annihilated him, leaving Jos with the relatively simple task of smashing the ball past three remaining defenders. He fluked this quite brilliantly.

Isaac and Jack beavered away on the right and left wings, providing some excellent crosses while continuing their season-long project to improve their pass-completion statistics. Max didn’t manage one of his trademark left-handed romps around the outside to the baseline, but worked tirelessly throughout and provided a terrific outlet for Lockie The Jab from left back.

Andy Dyer-Smith was as dynamic and vocal as ever and managed the left-midfield position brilliantly. Ray Yu opened his league account for Saffron Walden with a really tidy performance at right back, making tackle after tackle and distributing the ball cleanly.

It was also fantastic to have Logan at centre back, calmly mopping up everything that made it through and demonstrating why he will be an asset to whichever university hockey side is fortunate enough to acquire him this year. Godspeed, Logan. See you for a game or two at Easter, presumably.

And then there was Mike Gaughan: hugely effective at centre back, producing tremendous distribution, enormous aerials and a frankly surprising amount of mobility for a man who, by his own account, had been unable to walk for the previous ten days. Modern medicine truly is remarkable.

Final score: Saffron Walden Men’s 5s 4–1 Old Loughtonians Men’s 6s.

That could prove to be a very important result come the end of the season. A proper battle, won through effort, pressing, communication and some extremely clinical finishing.

There is still more to get from our wing play, and hopefully next week we can assemble enough functioning human beings to unleash the 4–2–3–1 once again.

Well battled. Let’s keep it rolling next week.

Well played, Walden!