When I woke up on Saturday morning it was raining. It is still raining now. The rain was sat on us for 70 minutes and more during our game. The air was cold, the clouds were low, our feet were brought down to sodden earth, and our hot streak was chilled by the constant miserable drizzle which tipped relentlessly from the from the grim grim sky. Saturday was a day to forget for Hockey, a day to forget for anyone who has ever though of being outdoors, Saturday was when our wake up call arrived.
I said last time out that all those teams under us would be coming for us now. I hold to that still. We saw on Saturday how that might happen, by gritty determination, defensive play and looking to take their chances. I don't intend to be kind about our opposition, they were not as good as the other teams we have played so far. Why they get credit is because we were so bad, so so bad... compared to how we have been. There was hard work in our group and determination that is true, that is why we got a result (yes we won, though you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise due to the morbid tone), but there was much more frustration, sloppiness and ill discipline.
Was it the grim weather? Was it complacency? Did we believe our own hype? Were we unprepared? Lazy? Arrogant? Individualistic? The reason are as many as the excuses but they both share the same characteristic, they are irrelevant. Saturday was a day to forget as I said. I don't think there is a player on our team who wants to play another game like that, I don't think there is another player in the game who would. We took a partial step back but that should only serve to show us all how grim the path we've trodden has been and that the only way is forward. So I'm confident we can brush ourselves off, stay positive, and stay happy. Everyone has a bad day, we will overcome and we will work hard to do so. There's one thing that still speaks volumes though, we did get the win and the points that go with it. We are still position one, so it is still in our hands so to speak. That's an important moment of warmth to take away from a bitter day.
Moving onto positive goings on I think it is appropriate that I call for a raising of a glass to the fact that so far in the league season all 4 of our men's teams are undefeated! A cause worth celebrating especially for the 4th team who are technically undefeated for all of recorded time. It is certainly going to create an interesting atmosphere at selection meetings when we discover which team (if any) shall be the first to bring shame upon the club by losing, I'm thinking a forfeit may be in order for the captain of that team! It is especially interesting in my household as my Dad's team (3rds) has a 100% record as well as us so big bragging rights shall be claimed by the team to outlast the other in that respect. I'm not too worried after watching the 3rds star striker (and our coach) miss at least 3 open goals, that kind of strike rate is going to lead to problems somewhere down the line! I'm telling you all this for two reasons: 1) It is hilarious as I'm sure you'll agree and 2) I'm not able to make it to training this week so he will be unable to punish me with extra laps/ star jumps/ photos of me not doing v-drags when I should. Of course I'm also leaving out the minor detail that those misses came in a 14-0 victory, but is that the point? It could have been 17!
So with no training for me that's it until Saturday where I think a little bit of setting the record straight might just be called for on the pitch...
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