Local League: Hitchin A 4 – 6 Milton Keynes

First visit to Hitchin’s new match-day home in a village just south of Hitchin which has one of the best changing rooms in the league. It’s only a concrete shed beside the playing fields, but the two changing rooms are large, clean and with fully working showers. All very welcome after we made beating a 9-man Hitchin A team slightly harder work than it should of been.

Playing against a team minus one player is a rare occurrence and certainly a new experience for many in MK colours. The rules do allow a 9-man team to keep only 2 players in each half (instead of 3, ignoring the goalie), but Hitchin decided to play the first half always man-down. This was a new experience for most in MK colours. Should we play as if on a non-stop power-play, or play as normal with a free man floating about? In defence we will have one extra player. Should they go chase the double-team the ball carrier or float on the crease and be ready to slide? For most of the first half, we did neither that well.

Hitchin scored twice in the opening period, partly due to their good play, partly due to having two MK players thinking they were the extra man, thus nobody covering the player with the ball! As the game wore on, MK started to become familiar with having the extra player. There were a few too many unforced turnovers all game but in the 3rd quarter MK pulled into a 3 goal lead.

Hitchin remained dangerous all game which is a testament to their work-rate but MK left the field happy with the win but knowing it should of been a lot easier. Highlights were a first competitive goal from Kyle Mackie, Brett Satchell stepping into goal again as our backup-backup goalie, goals from 5 different players and some awful Caribbean-style socks from Paul Nicholls.

Game Stats
4:6 (2:2, 3:4, 3:6, 4:6)
MK Man-to-the-Match: Kyle Mackie
MK D-of-the-Day: Paul Nicholls

MK Scorers
Corey Jamieson x 2
Jonny Prince
Kyle Mackie
Dan Willson
Matt Sawyer