Stockton M3s 0 - 8 Durham City M2s

A clear sky, a warm day and a trip to Yarm/Stockton made for a wonderful backdrop for a game of hockey. Before the game, the team made a beautiful gesture following the death of my mother by wearing brightly coloured clothes (by her request people will wear bright colours at the funeral rather than black). Having come very close to making the writer cry before the game had even begun, we got ourselves ready.

After some debate over who's pushback it was (it was ours), the game started. After about 30 seconds, a fast flowing move from the men in gold saw our first goal, finished off by Toby. The game restarted, which meant Stockton could have their first touch of the ball.

Durham pressed their advantage and soon, a scramble in the opposition D resulted in a penalty flick. Dan, our captain, stepped up when he was needed. After the game, he was sure to correct us that he did, in fact, not miss the flick, the keeper saved it. Regardless of the semantics, however, the score remained 1-0.

Stockton grew into the game and made a few dangerous moves, however Durham's quality shone through and we doubled our lead through a well taken goal by Adam W. Well taken in the sense that, following an audacious goal-bound lob from Dan Pudwell, Adam brought it under control and finished it off himself, bravely preventing the captain from making up for his earlier gaff.

Rich Root, clearly becoming bored, began asserting himself into the game. Attempting to spray some passes about (including a neat palm down to Paul), he did needlessly give the ball to the opposition once, which was less than Timmy and Paul did. However Rich reminded us that he still maintained a 66% pass completion rate.

Also wanting to assert himself on the game, our very own Wasp picked up the ball in midfield and beat a player, turning back on himself and beat him again, turned back on himself once again and beat the player a third time. This continued for some time. Eventually Shez did run into trouble, although luckily for everyone, nothing came of it.

The game continued with Durham dominating and scoring three more before half time, including Dan eventually scoring a goal, this time from a short corner he told everyone was going towards the right post. He then neatly (and ... ahem ... entirely purposefully) nestled it into the side netting on the left of the goal. This goal was sandwiched between two finely taken and well worked team goals, finished off calmly by Patrick.

Half time and 5-0 up was certainly a positive, and Durham looked to add to their lead and would have, had Adam W managed to finish any of the myriad of tap ins that fell his way. Clearly tired of his namesakes inability to find the net (unless it also denied his captain a goal), Adam D stepped up, took the ball round the 'keeper, lined up his shot, and stood on the ball.

Three more goals followed, Thomas getting his first of the game, whilst Zach and Dan bickered over who got the last touch (eventually it was decided by Dan that it was his goal as he inputs the data into GMS, one for the dubious goal panel to sort out). The final goal was neatly tucked away by Toby following a slightly messy short corner. Although Shez did try and add to it in the dying minutes, though however big his swing was, it wasn't quite big enough to make contact with the ball. Whilst Oscar rounded off a fine performance by ruthlessly taking out a 14 year old child.

The golden army retired to the pub for well earned burgers and beers following a nice cold shower. For a brief period Durham reached top of the league, before Morpeth 1s recorded a win themselves later in the day. A big game next week in the Maiden Castle derby against Hild Bede which promises to be a cracker!

DOD Adam W - a significant amount of missed chances

MOM Adam W - stopping Dan from getting a hatrick

#brightcolours #dubiousgoalspanel #hattrickprevention #Timmytwopints