BDHC (4) @ Cambridge HC (6)

BDHC (4) @ Cambridge HC (6)
Cambridge Hockey Club are a brand new team for this 2022-23 season, starting out in Div 2 but chock full of players with plenty of experience of playing at a higher level and still capable of doing so again! Prior to this game their record read: played 11, won 11, conceded just 8.
Probably not then the best game to go into with 4 midfielders and the first choice goalkeeper unavailable. But often these are the games where players step up. They play without fear, with nothing to lose and everything to gain.
A somewhat lackadaisical warm up preceded a near calamitous opening whereby the Dragons conspired to put their own defence under pressure from their own push back, with back up goalie Ed Sarsby called upon to bail them out with a smart save. Nothing like getting an early touch to settle any nerves!
From then on though the Dragons truly stepped up. Andy Briault was the rock at the back (duly noted by the opposition post match as their player of the game), forming a defensive barrier with Joe Garner and Will Gray.
With the defence providing a solid platform for the forwards, the Dragons went up the other end and won a short corner. A slick routine found Robin Edlington in space to slip the ball home to take the lead.
Cambridge were not about to panic, and came back with an equaliser just a few minutes later, but the Dragons were in no mood to sit back. What followed then was a good old fashioned heavy weight slug fest; 2 teams going toe to toe, no quarter given, none asked for!
At 1-1 Cambridge were starting to assert themselves on the game, a goal was coming, you could feel it. A brief bit of pin ball in the D found the Cambridge #5 with the ball on the end of his stick.. he took a touch to steady himself before applying the coup de grace… and was promptly rugby tackled from behind by Brewer reliving his ice hockey days with a classic roughing penalty! No card but a flick awarded, time for Cambs to finally get the lead their attacking play had deserved. Except the crossbar had other ideas, bravely coming to the Dragons’ rescue as the flick thundered off the face of the bar.
Relieved to still be on the pitch and not to have cost his team a crucial goal, Brewer set about making amends in the midfield alongside Callum Howitt and Hugo Brill who harried and chased and never gave a Teal shirt a moments peace. However a second Cambridge goal did eventually come just before half time, much to the visible relief of the Cambridge players.
Smiles were suddenly back on Cambridge faces, and those smiles were soon all the wider just moments into the second half when an errant pass from the back was pounced upon by a Cambridge forward who quickly made it 3-1.
This is were everything is back on script. The plucky under dogs have given the big boys a scare, but they’ve been put back in their place and now we just need a couple more goals for the table toppers so they can take their foot off the gas, maybe practise a few new short corner routines, chuck an aerial or 2, then home for tea and medals…..
But this group of young Dragons after 2 seasons of being relegation fodder have found their voice, found their drive, and found that they don’t like losing anymore! Brill, Brittain, Moisey, Hutton, Edlington ran and ran chased and tackled, and any chance of complacency creeping into the game were banished when Edlington broke free 1 on 1 to make it 3-2. Contender for goal of the game then came from Joseph Moisey, a pile driver of a hit from the right hand side of the D gave the goalkeeper no chance and brough the game level at 3-3.
Cambridge rocking… not quite, they are much too good a side for that, but there was a nervous glance or 2, and some notable shouts about having to ‘Grind this one out’. They retook the lead, another well worked opening for their 4th open play goal of the game, not bad for a team labelled by previous opposition as one trick ponies for their excellent penalty corner routines!
So 4-3, still not game over. For me the best goal of the game was the tying goal at 4-4, the ball was flashed across the goal (just like we practised NOT doing at training, but hey, what do I know!) and looked to be heading off for a sideline ball until out of nowhere the speeding bullet that is the Edlington Express came sliding in on his knees to thwack the ball past a bamboozled defender and goalkeeper.
Unfortunately this is where the fairytale DOES end. It would be all too easy to say that tired legs started to show or that Cambridge managed a couple of lucky goals, but in the end their better quality showed. Two unanswered goals got them over the finish line, but we made them work bloody hard for each and every one of them. Sarsby made save after save, Briault cleared one off the line, but in the end it wasn't quite enough.
Even at 6-4 with just 2 minutes left, the Dragons were still to a man going toe to toe with their opposite numbers, not shirking a challenge, not missing a step. To see a top quality side having to push themselves into another gear to get the result and to see them taking the ball into the corner to use up time shows just how far this Bourne Deeping team has come in the last 2 years.
It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, but possibly our best of the season so far and although it’s still a loss, a performance to be proud of.
As for Cambridge, they were nothing but complementary about our team and the game itself. Pleased to finally be pushed and I think maybe a little relieved to find that yes, when they need to, they can still dig in and grind out a well deserved win. A shame we won’t play them next year as they head on to Div 1.