Match Preview – Saturday 28 September
Top of the League!
It was a fantastic start to the league last weekend, with six out of the seven City of Peterborough men’s teams winning well in their first games of the season.
Tomorrow, the “top of the league” Men’s 1st XI travel down to Watford to play West Herts, who were also winners on the first day. They are strengthened this week as Neil Evans is back from holiday, but West Herts are likely to provide a tougher test all round than the opposition last week.
Back at “Fortress Bretton Gate”, the 10am pushback is the Men’s 6th team game v St Neots 2nds. Not before time they and everyone else will say, they’ve introduced some youth to add some legs to the experience of all the old heads. Hopefully they will get the first points on the board even before the bar opens. Whatever happens, you know the Guinness will be flowing at midday…..
Lakey’s 4th team are a formidable blend of the young and old this season (if you like – the “good, bad and the ugly”). With many of the squad having played much higher before (Lakey played National League you know!), they have a clear club objective to get out of the division and an emphatic win away over local rivals Bourne Deeping last week was just what they wanted. They host St Ives 2nds at 11.30am at home.
Sandwiched between the Men’s 2nds and the Men’s 4ths are the Ladies 1st team. They have the prime slot at 1pm, hosting Norwich City. They will hope to carry on the form of their second half last week, and forget the first half performance. It’s early days, but win or lose, look out for some more Lawrie-isms being liberally thrown about after the game by the manager – if only he knew so much about hockey as he does about clichés!
The Men’s 2nd team, by all accounts, were very unlucky to lose to a late goal at Harleston last week and will also look to bounce back. Their opponents at Bretton Gate are Bishops Stortford, a team relegated with the 2nds last year. They pushback at 2.30pm, with hopes of a first victory of the season to get them off and running.
Onto the other road trips, the first result of the day will come from the 3rd team. They will hope to match the usual Cambridge University (2nds) energy with more of their own and if any team in the league can do that, it will be our young third team. Injured captain Shayne Andrews was pleasantly surprised last week when his team ran out comfortable winners 5-2 against a physical Letchworth team at the Gate, and another performance like that will see them push the students hard.
The Men’s 5ths had a last gasp win over Wisbech last Saturday, and go to St Neots. The Magnificent Sevens, winners over a good Bourne Deeping 3rd team last Saturday, are away at St Ives 3rds.
Other friendlies are:
– Men’s 8ths away to Grantham
– Men’s 9ths against the Vets at the Thomas Deacon Academy
– Ladies 3rds home at 4pm to St Ives 2nds
– Ladies 4ths away at March.
Good luck to all the teams tomorrow, home and away.
