On a crisp November morning, Gosport Under 10’s went to the ‘new’ Portsmouth Hockey Club MiniFest

A very understrength under 10 team fielded with 4 of our under 10’s and 2 under 8’s meant we started again needing support from Haslemere to field the full 7 players required.
Playing Haslemere 2nd team first meant a player going against his own team and a change to the layout of the squad meant William Higgins supported his teammates by stepping into centre back and all day was a stalwart, frustrating not just Haslemere but also stopping many a goal with his sheer doggedness. Supported on his left by Lucy Kemp who played brilliantly in both the first and second games of the day and William Kemp at right back, who in his first outing for the under 10’s was nothing short of outstanding.
Only one goal seperated Haslemere and Gosport and good work between Nathan at right half and Jacob playing centre mid resulted in the only goal.
The next 2 games were much tougher than normal, playing Portsmouth 2’s in our second game. Portsmouth scores twice through long balls to a lone player standing deep behind our defensive line but Gosport did all they could and Nathan scored our only goal but a superb game to watch with a score line that didn’t reflect the effort made by all players. In this game near the end Lucy ended up with a nasty knock on her ankle which unfortunately put her out for the rest of the minifest (we greatly missed Lucy’s strong and decisive tackles).
Now needing 2 Haslemere players for all of the last 4 remaining games all of the Gosport team worked incredibly hard but were thrown by the co start changes of players who hadn’t worked with them before.
3rd game was against Havant and although huge effort by all and some amazing runs by our U8 Jonah who had a couple of chances due to his speed and great position off the ball, still resulted in a draw but another great game.
4th game against Petersfield was more what we are used to with a great win and 4 goals scored. 2 by our Haslemere sub and 2 by Jacob. Although Jonah should have had a goal, he let the Haslemere player have the goal which shows how great his team play is.
5th game was again against another Haslemere team (meaning we had 2 Haslemere players playing against their friends). Another strong Gosport performance with the midfield fighting and getting 2 great goals (Nathan first then Jacob), but nothing of these goals were brilliantly set up and put into motion by great defensive play by the 2 Williams who broke from the back and played great passes to the front. Back to back wins.
Final game of the day was against Portsmouth 1’s who we have not beaten this season as of yet and although incredibly close and chances at both ends this week was not to be with Portsmouth scoring twice and Gosport only getting the one goal. Another amazing game which should have been a draw based on the performance of both teams and all of the amazing youngsters.

Special note and thanks has to go to Haslemere for helping us with extra players for all 6 of our games.

Stats as below:
Gosport vs Haslemere 2 - Gosport won 1-0
Gosport vs Portsmouth 2 - Portsmouth won 2-1
Havant vs Gosport - 0-0
Petersfield 1 vs Gosport - Gosport won 4-0
Haslemere 3 vs Gosport - Gosport won 2-0
Gosport vs Portsmouth 1 - Portsmouth won 2-1
Goal scorers:
Jake (Haslemere) - 2
Nathan - 2
Jacob - 5