Biggest game of the season so far for M1 as they faced Canterbury 2s, who were bottom of the table but within touching distance. With the game also notable for the return of former skipper Chris Slade, and with a couple of the Folkestone team having also previously turned out for Canterbury, the stakes were high.

Folkestone started brightly and had the majority of possession, without turning it into anything concrete. Canterbury grew in confidence and started to have joy with overlapping defenders, creating 2 on 1s and generating chances in the Folkestone D. Eventually the pressure broke when a free hit against Folkestone was given just outside the 25. With some participants believing (incorrectly) that a long corner had been awarded, the ball was played straight into the Folkestone D and converted by - who else! - Slade from close range.

Folkestone had chances at the other end too, the best coming when Tolhurst got round the back and somehow squeezed the ball behind the goalkeeper but also beyond the far post and wide. With space hard to come by up front, the best performances came again from two of the younger squad members, Manwaring again shoring everything up in midfield, and Hopkin jr getting on the ball in attacking midfield and using it sensibly.

Coach Scott had already cycled through his tactical options in H1 and decided to go for broke in H2, asking the team to play two different systems simultaneously in order to enable us to outlet in possession and press when out of it. Surprisingly this worked, and for 20 minutes M1 had a great spell of hockey in which they had almost all of the ball - a period that neither a game-ending injury to Fry, nor a 5 min YC for Little for a challenge from behind, didn’t disrupt. Eventually the pressure told, with the ball falling to Manwaring after a series of half-chances in the D. With the keeper nowhere, the pressure was on the youngster to score his first ever 1s goal… which he duly did, flicking the ball calmly in to equalise. 1-1.

The momentum was with Folkestone and it seemed the result would come… until disaster. Mead appeared to win a challenge fairly in midfield in a 50/50 but the decision, to everyone’s surprise, went against him, and the ball was played quickly into the Folkestone D and past GK Witham from a narrow angle. 2-1 Canterbury.

All was not yet lost and a late cavalry charge drew a series of strong challenges from Canterbury defenders, mainly on Herd, drew a YC and sent the oppo down to 10. Witham’s services in goal were again dispensed with as we went with 11 outfield and it nearly came off, as we won 2 short corners as time expired but were unable to convert either. A disappointing result, and we fall into the bottom 2.