League: Buckhurst Hill 10 – 3 Milton Keynes

Bit of a disappointing loss today with MK appearing sluggish in everything we did on the field.

It was our first game vs Buckhurst Hill. The hosts had been East Div 1 regulars for seemingly forever until a tough season and relegation down to East 2 last season. Did they still have that East 1 quality… in patches yes, but for large chunks of the game MK were on a level par, albeit with no real penetration in attack and a pretty awful 2nd quarter where Buckhurst Hill jumped to a 6-1 lead.

Two new MK players on debut today. Between the pipes was Patrick Land, who’s moved down from the NEMLA league for work reasons. Even if a (very) tiny bit game rusty Pat showed he’s got bags of quality and is going to be a real assist to the club. In midfield was Matt Sawyer. He moved away from MK just as the club was formed a few years ago, but is now back and showed us what he’s made of with a solid performance capped by a goal in the 3rd quarter.

MK’s man-of-the-match went to Aaron Day, playing LSM and face-off. Aaron allowed no Buckhurst Hill fast breaks from the restarts, winning a fair few himself. The opposite, but light hearted, award went to vice-captain Corey Jamieson who’s still learning the subtle arts of winning the midfield physical and verbal battles. According to Corey he’d done a number on BH’s #72… but the stats sheet proved otherwise with #72 scoring half of the BH goals (Editors Note: Corey was not responsible for all of #72’s five goals, coach Gooch will put his hands up for at least a couple with non convincing defensive slides).

Lots for MK to improve on week by week. Top priorities will increasing the physical and mental tempo of our play, closely followed by better technique to win ground balls and just taking more shots on goal. You can’t score if you don’t shoot! Bring on East Grinstead ‘A’ next Saturday at Stantonbury, at the slightly earlier start time of 1pm.

MK Squad
Patrick Land, Rob Gooch, Christian Kenneth Brown, Ben Knightingale, Aaron Day, Corey Jamieson, Toby Jeffries, Matt Sawyer, Jonny Prince, Jack Gambrill, Rhys Kelham and Brett Satchell

Game Stats
10:3 (1:0, 6:1, 7:2, 10:3)
MK Goals:
#18 Joby Jefferies
#4 Matt Sawyer
#88 Jack Gambrill

MK Man-to-the-Match: Aaron Day
MK D-of-the-Day: Corey Jamieson