With so many strong hockey players in this age group, it is important to rotate players around to give those who have been working very hard in training the chance to show their skills against the stronger teams. Today, Torin, Arlo and Blake represented the A team for the first time but we began with those who have played for the A team before. It was a very close first 10-minute period with Hamish coming up with the opening goal with a reverse finish. We really struggled to pass the ball sharply and with pace so it meant we weren’t as fluent as we could have been. On came the subs in the second period with Arlo injecting some pace on the right and Blake holding his position well at left back, making some strong tackles and clearing the ball with that no-nonsense approach. Torin played a more central role having played a few minutes of the first period at left back and seemed more comfortable in this area. Other players were moved around positions to see how they’d slot in. Craigclowan were good at getting players forward and making excellent leads on outside and their centre mid was allowed some space in front of goal and put the ball through Jamie’s legs with a strong shot. 1-1 at half time and we still hadn’t really got into our rhythm. After the break, players moved around and we finally clicked with Toby out on the right, hitting some lovely crosses into Theo who had gone back up to striker after spending 10 minutes playing in defence and finished some terrific moves off with lovely touches in front of goal. His movement off the ball created problems for the defence and we took a commanding lead of 4-1 going into the final period. Oliver and Caspian were instrumental in some of those goals with much better pace on the ball to get it forward and Arthur filled in well at the back when Caspian ventured forward, showing he is really beginning to read the game better.

In the fourth and final period, Craigclowan got one back after we backed off and didn’t get bodies between the ball and the goal – something we had been working on in training with Mr Murray from Glenalmond on Monday and their striker gave Jamie no chance with a lovely flick off his teammate’s stick. However, Hamish, Arlo and Torin all combined beautifully to create a terrific team goal to make it 5-2 before Arlo slotted home another from close range. Blake was solid at the back again and is showing that hard work on the astro at break is paying off!