League: Milton Keynes 7 – 4 Buckhurst Hill

Players, referees and our largest group of spectators this season braved storm Dennis as it blew across Milton Keynes. Everyone who supports the MK Minotaurs went away cold, wet but happy after we snapped a two-game losing streak by beating the Essex men from Buckhurst Hill.

The teams were well matched in numbers and experience. Both playing some relatively inexperienced players, a few with 6+ seasons in the game, and with MK’s Gooch (#9) and Bucks’ Williams (#10), two old men who have seen it all before.

A number of first’s this week for MK;

• Corey’s first hat-trick in a league game.
• Alex’s first goal for MK.
• Matty’s first encounter with a ‘big unit’ in defence (wish we had a photo of you on the floor)… welcome to men’s lacrosse, but also a great goal in the 3rd quarter!

Goalie Eliot Pugh had a mixed day. He made at least 8 superb saves but struggled in the wind to find open MK players with passes. His skin was saved a few times by the defence. He’s got a valid excuse. As England’s indoor/goalie, wind is not something that he often has to deal with.

Really pleasing today was our ability to handle the weather. Few unforced errors, few penalties and two man-up goals; the third from Jamieson just behind half-time and one from Jacob in the 3rd quarter. Jacob’s younger brother Laurence scored a great individual goal midway through the final quarter to ice the game. He saw a gap in the Bucks defence and just powered into it, evading a couple of stick checks then fired a shot into the bottom corner.

Bucks did have a few chances late in the game to possibly make a comeback but final passes just missed the target. The North (East) table sees MK placed 4th. There’s a clear split between teams. The top three are slugging it out. MK are now two wins ahead of Camden 2’s and Buckhurst Hill. Are remaining games in this division are against both those teams, plus a final home game against Welwyn 2’s on 28th March.

Game Stats
7-4 (2-1, 4-3, 6-3, 7-4)

MK Scorers:
#69 Corey Jamieson
#24 Alex Davies
#69 Corey Jamieson
#69 Corey Jamieson
#2 Matty Long
#46 Jacob Nichols Cook
#36 Laurence Nichols Cook

Man-of-the-Match: Corey Jamieson
D-of-the-Day: Eliot Pugh