A breakfast-time meet for a long trip to toaster, I mean Towcester… you can just imagine the puns brought to bear by Willetts and crew as the Sils made the long trip for a top of the table clash at this new club enjoying their first season of league hockey. Towcester have one team and a development side – and it was a full-strength 1st XI we were up against – their ‘B’ team captain telling up before the start that their firsts were “keen to make a statement” against the team currently second in the league (us!).

And so it proved. Most of Towcester’s squad would compete easily in the top ranks of Midlands League, so it was a learning experience for the M4s. But reflecting afterwards, we can take a lot of real positives from the day. Yes, they punished any mistakes we made and were clinical in their attacking, but also yes, we never gave up and the senior Sils were rightly proud of the younger Sils whose heads didn’t drop. Yes, Towcester scored an impressive eleven first half goals, but we made changes at half time, took on board Dave’s comments, knuckled down and went 22 second-half minutes without conceding a goal. Especially pleasing was the way Reece Nijran and Dom Higgins, and Oscar Watkin and Ollie Cooper looked strategically at how we might improve things and made their own decisions to swop positions around – these changes made a significant difference in the second period – great that you showed such confidence and reading of the game guys.

The umpires (incidentally, the best I have seen at this level in years) were full of praise for our youngsters after the match, picking out Alex Scott for his excellent shot-stopping and Sam Barton for his positional play giving us an outlet down the right. Mark Barton came off blooded and badly bruised after some dogged work in midfield, whilst both Dan Bridges and Keith Willetts had understandably frustrating matches up front; their chance will come in the important matches against those clubs around us challenging for the second promotion slot.

So all in all, well done team for sticking it out – we can learn from and aspire to play the sort of hockey we saw from our opposition - and take the positives of great team spirit and a commitment not to give up when we welcome Market Harborough to Sils next Saturday (3pm). Finally, a big thank you to the parents who made the journey down to Towcester to get all the team there – it’s a long way to go to see the lads hit for so many, but is very much appreciated…