The 5's opened up their season with a home fixture against a Holcs team fielding a similar blend of youth and experience, albeit with a few more young subs for the Ops experience to have to pursue around the pitch!
A sluggish warm up saw the Ops start slowly, retaining possession well, but achieving very little with it. As Holcs grew into the game, they became more dangerous but with the back line of Gaz Whitham, John Turner, Dom van der Wal, Dougie Ferguson and skipper Paul Andrews well marshalled by 'keeper Karl Dodd, their attacks provoked little alarm. Gradually the Ops turned up the heat, with Phil Gascoigne and Charley Pepper beginning to dominate the midfield, releasing front runners Nabeel and Parvez Bhatti, Chris Jeffrey and debutant Nathan Povey to press the Holcs defence. The Ops won a long corner, which Andrews took quickly, driving into the 'd before laying it off to Whitham who applied a cool one-handed reverse stick finish. Ops really began to press now, whilst affording Holcs little by way of joy at the other end. However, the score remained at 1-0 at halftime. From the restart, Holcs showed more purpose and a well worked short corner saw them draw level. This kicked the Ops back into gear, and saw them produce some breath-taking hockey, with sweeping moves up both sides of the pitch really testing the Holcs defensive mettle. One lovely move up the left by Bhatti jr found Jeffrey in space, whose cross/shot was turned it at the far post by Povey to mark a superb debut by the youngster. Another sweeping move up the right again saw the Ops transition from defence to attack in just 3 passes, with Jeffrey finding the advancing skipper in the 'd. The skipper coolly fired the ball between the on-rushing 'keepers legs to put the Ops in total command. The free-flowing hockey was now in full effect, and Povey turned provider for Jeffrey to finish from close range to make it 4-1 with 5 to go. This was probably not an entirely fair reflection of the game, and to their credit Holcs battled right to the end, when an unfortunate touch by the previously flawless Turner gave a Holcs youngster the chance to pull one back right at the death.
Overall, a very pleasing performance by the Ops with little evidence to show that they hadn't played any team hockey for almost 6 months.