Canterbury Pilgrims 4 - 2 Maidstone

Spirits were high in the changing room prior to pushback for the Men's 1s on Saturday. This said, a slight dampener to the mood was the loss of skipper Jim Christmas who, despite travelling, was unable to play due to an injection during the week.

Maidstone had three promising pre-season fixtures under their belt and were confident going into an away fixture against a side who they had done the double over in the 22/23 season. However, such was the side's start, any spectator would be forgiven for thinking this was the first hockey any Maidstone player had played since April 2023.

Maidstone struggled to move the ball quickly throughout all areas of the pitch and suffered the consequences of this in the first twenty minutes particularly. A well-drilled Canterbury outfit managed to convert entries into the D to short corners, and further upgrade their short corners into goals. The two goals the Pilgrims scored in the first half came from drag-flicks at goal that were saved initially but bundled in on the rebound.

At 2-0 and looking stagnant, Maidstone were desperate for the half-time whistle's hoot.

Unfortunately, such was the first half's performance, it was to always be an uphill task to conjure points from the fixture.

Maidstone did tease with spells of good hockey, one particular play down the left saw Will Day scoop the ball into the roof of the net as the whistle was being blown for a short corner. Needless to say, the Men's 1s were infuriated with the lack of advantage offered when the ball was clear in the D for a shot, alas.

The umpire's efforts to prevent Will Day from having his name on the scoresheet were short-lived, however. Another nice move down the left saw Rob Clarkson steer the ball goalward on his sweeping reverse. Day, running towards the front post, deflected the ball with aplomb over the outstretching keeper, 2-1.

The one-goal deficit and hope for a result was short-lived. A naive yellow card resulted in a Maidstone free-hit being overturned to a Canterbury short-corner. A key aim of the second half had been to avoid conceding short corners to a team who were (a) intent on winning shorts and (b) good from the top of the D when drag flicking. Needless to say, Maidstone conceded from the resulting short, 3-1.

For the ten minutes Maidstone were down a man the home side enjoyed the majority of the possession. The Pilgrims, content with their two goal lead seized the opportunity to swing the ball around their back four forcing Maidstone to press high despite being a man down.

Just as Maidstone returned to a full eleven, Canterbury worked a nice move down the right hand side that saw their captain skillfully deflect into the backboard for their fourth of the afternoon.

With five minutes to play Maidstone scored what can only be described as a consolation. Zach Quinn charged towards goal with vigour before striking a wonderful reverse from the top of the D into the bottom right corner. A goal that deserved more than a few pats on the back, but such was the score it was all it got.

4-2 was a relatively fair result. The lesson, ultimately, for the Men's 1s is that they have to perform for 70 minutes and not in patches if they're to be expectant of getting points on the board.

Maidstone host newly promoted Cliftonville next week - a 14.30 pushback and an opportunity to properly start the season.