In a week that saw the 2’s start with 14 players on paper we travelled to Polo farm with 12. An illness, injury and impending pregnancy ruled out 3 regulars and it was Peely (who was due to play for the 3’s due to a dubious ankle) who stepped up at the 11th hour to ensure we had 12.

The game started a few minutes after Noah arrived from his big night up London and BAHC started brightly, we held our shape and moved the ball forward with purpose getting the ball into the opposition D early on. Noah tried to sub off Longly only to be told no! 30 seconds later and Longly is subbing himself off to have a picnic with Bob Saunders supporting us from the sideline.

The majority of our attacks came down the right from the rampant Mike Butler. The back 5 taking their time to play the ball round the back with pace and waiting for the inexperienced Canterbury side to lose shape before releasing Butler on another attack.

After spending time practicing short corners at training is was great to see us playing it smart and getting shorts unlike the previous week. 2 Reece Flint and 1 David Draper drag flick in the first half saw us 3-0 up. As we neared the end of the half we started pressing harder but we lost our shape while pressing for a 4th and Canterbury took full advantage and countered in the last 2 mins forcing Steve Flower into action at the near post.

The second half also started brightly with more pressure from BAHC with Robbie Cluett (MOM) causing all sorts of problems in their 25 and was eventually rewarded with a well worked goal at the back post.

The two Canterbury umpires were great all game so a massive thank you to them. One did take exception to David Draper for reasons unknown.

The 5th goal came from Chris Waight wobbling across the top of the D before being given the time to wind up a reverse stick strike into the top right hand corner.

With a season first clean sheet almost in our grasp Canterbury got a short corner in the last 2 minutes which was palmed away by Flower for a well earned 5-0 win!

Onwards to Marden 2’s next week.