Going in to this match at the top of the league Devizes were confident of coming away with a positive result. West Wilts, on the other hand, had other ideas! Devizes, who had been guilty of starting off slowly in recent games, were very quick out of blocks and were soon applying pressure around West Wilts’ penalty area. The quick passing and moving game that has been developing with the Devizes team over recent months was, once again, providing space and openings around the pitch. Despite Devizes having the majority of possession and territory, West Wilts were organised and disciplined in defence and were able to match every attacking move that Devizes could muster. With nearly all the play taking place in the top third of the pitch it was virtually impossible to find any space towards the goal and any openings that did present themselves were quickly blocked off by the West Wilts Defence. As well as defending firmly with numbers behind the ball West Wilts were also looking for opportunities to counter attack and the Devizes defence, adopting a supportive press formation around the half way line, had to remain alert to cut off any such moves. They did this very efficiently and linked up well with the midfield to get the ball moving forwards again. Half time beckoned and Devizes had not yet managed to take advantage of their time spent in and around the West Wilts ‘D’ with the score line balanced at 0-0.

After the break Devizes again started to attack well and were playing some spells of very nice hockey. They were perhaps trying a little too hard to force a scoring opportunity at times and, as a result, their structure broke down and they missed out on opportunities to pounce on rebounds from the goalkeeper or interceptions made by the defenders. During one goal mouth scrap, with the ball pinging around every which way, Toby Benning-Batstone found himself in a position to sweep the ball past the displaced goalkeeper and Devizes breathed a collective sigh of relief. Being just one goal ahead was still a precarious position to be in and West Wilts continued to show their ability to break away. Dominic Blackmore-Beales, Simon Church and Matt Hamill provided a solid back line and cut off every attacking move that West Wilts made with clinical efficiency. Tom Syndercombe, playing at left wing back, provided a link with the midfield to turn these passages of defence into attack again very quickly as Devizes continued to pile on the pressure. Although they showed inventiveness at times, Devizes’ short corner routines were not quite up to speed and many scoring opportunities came and went with no additional goals being scored. One shot following a penalty corner struck the foot of a West Wilts defender on the goal line and a penalty flick was awarded. Jacob Stoner stood up to take the flick but the West Wilts goalkeeper made a fine save to his left hand side. A few more agonizing minutes before the final whistle blew giving Devizes A a narrow victory over a team who defended superbly throughout an exciting match.

Dominic Blackmore-Beales was awarded the Man of the Match award for his defensive work with a mention in dispatches for Sam Hodge for organising the attacks from midfield. Jacob Stoner was given the honour of receiving the first Movember DoD for missing his penalty flick and wore his Mexican Moustache with great pride for the remainder of the day. I’d love to say that he took it in good humour, but we honestly couldn’t see whether he was smiling or grimacing somewhere below the depths of that mass of fake facial hair...!