Following our thrashing in the early league game against Chi 5's Pumas went into the game thinking, “If we play like we did at the end of last year, we might actually get something out of this game.”

Chichester came flying out of the blocks, but our goalkeeper and defense decided they quite liked not conceding and held firm for the first twenty-five minutes. After weathering the storm we finally remembered how to play hockey and got a foothold in the game.

The breakthrough came when Tom Love and Bryan Hodges both had shots saved, only for young Finley Boswell to pop up and casually slot the ball home like he’d been doing it for years. 1–0 to us and mild celebrations followed.

Chichester kept the pressure coming, but we stubbornly refused to let them score for another 15 minutes before they finally equalized. They then thought they’d taken the lead just before half-time, started celebrating… and then had it ruled out for a foot in the build-up. Awkward.

HT 1-0 to Pumas

The second half was mostly Chichester attacking and us saying “not today.” Man of the Match Phinn Lambe turned into a human brick wall in goal, helped out by Bryan with a heroic goal-line clearance that saved us all from extra running.
With minutes left, we won a short corner. Enter Peter Wingate with what can only be described as the slowest injection in hockey history. Somehow, despite everyone ageing a few years, the ball eventually reached the top of the D. James slipped it to Ed Charlesworth, who demonstrated that shooting practice is very much still needed for him.

Final score: 1–1.

Moral victory: priceless.

MoM: Phinn for eventually playing how we know he can in goal.
DoD: Pete W for preventing us from sneaking the goal that would of one us the game with the last short corner.