Third time lucky in terms of getting this fixture played after Storm Dara forced cancellation number 1 and seasonal cold weather forced cancellation number 2. As I staggered home from the club on Saturday following the rugby and belly full of beer, I mused to myself that it felt cold enough for a third cancellation. With that though in mind I stopped off for a literal ‘one for the road’ (Green Dragon should you be wondering, well a man (and dog) has to do something waiting for his sweet and sour chicken balls right?). But despite the white sheen on the ground come Sunday morning the sun was high in the sky and very much had his hat on (hip, hip hooray) and we were off.

The match felt important. Upminster three points and eight goals ahead of us. A win and back in contact with lower mid table. Despite the efforts from the previous day everyone appeared to bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go. First of all, we had to use detailed gird monitoring systems to ensure the ball was placed at the absolute centre of the pitch for the opening push back, and then finally yes we would be ready to go.

Speaking personally, I found the game itself to be enjoyable. The teams were set up quite differently and to use a boxing analogy ‘styles make fights.’ The Academy were more focused on short passing and moving up the pitch in a slower manner. Upminster far more prepared (and set up) to play a more direct style. The chances when they came were interesting in how different they were. The Academy in the final third came up against really quite congested D’s little or no space whilst Upminster forays into the D tended to be one or two up against our three-man defence. The chaos of our chances probably reflects as to why we managed to win the short corner count by I think 5 or 6-0. They were certainly nil. What we didn’t do in the first half, which we have been good at all season, was to have an attacker on the far post to effectively widen the size of target. We were left to rue that on a couple of occasions.

Upminster took the lead when we gave the ball away in our right back channel. Upminster working the chance very well. From memory that was really the only time we gave the ball away deep in our own half. There were certainly plenty of turnovers higher up, but nothing was given cheaply in our own half. We came back at them. We created a few half chances, I narrowly missed the bottom left corner and as stated above a few times the right ball was played without the back up in place.

Half time, no need to panic. Post up and be a little more clinical. To be fair we did the first but the second remained lacking. Again, we had more of the chances. Rob Edwards had a couple of shots, I had an effort saved, last ditch, off the line by a covering defender, short corners came and went, Isaac Minor got into exactly the right position on the post but just failed to connect with a fast moving ball coming across at him. On review we probably could still be playing and we wouldn’t have scored yet. Pinky literally ran himself into the ground. Strong in defence and supporting the attack constantly. His child caring side once again coming out as another youth was left flattened – this time holding his shoulder, to be fair he was up and running fairly quickly but the number of youths left splattered on various hockey pitches across Essex by ‘the Pinky’ is adding up, only a few more to go and he’ll surpass our total goals column. As the clock ticked down and with just over 5 minutes remaining Upminster made it two. Very straight forward this, chasing the game we over committed to the attack and Colin was left with two attackers to deal with. The experienced duo made no mistake and Scott in goal had no real chance. That really was game, set and match and I think we all knew it. But we don’t give up and still managed to force the ball up the other end and there was at least one more short corner before the umpire blew up.

It was a good effort by all. The youth can be proud of their efforts and staying in the game. No heads dropped. Darshan and Aiden were impressive performers throughout. Sam worked hard up front and is developing a pleasing knack of finding pockets of space. His green card was probably a green but he was by no means the worst offender from either side in terms of tackling and can consider himself a bit unlucky. Charlie, Isaac and Doug similarly worked hard, William in particular drawing some positive comments from the opposition as he got stuck in. James Mc playing through the pain threshold for the team. However, the man of the match deservedly went to Charlie Sanders. Strong in defence and growing in confidence in supporting the attack.

The positive to take away from the match is that you can’t have a ‘great escape,’ without the escape being great. If we had won yesterday and went on to survive it could only be described as ‘mildly impressive, and that doesn’t have the same ring to it. Bottom of the table, seven to play – it’s on, cue music.

Team: Scott Parsons, Simon Parsons, Colin Singleton, Charlie Saunders, Chris Minor, Gary MacDonnell, Rob Saunders, James McKay, Isaac Minor, Aiden Pass, Sam Severn, Doug Muncey, William McKay, Darshan Gandhi, Phil