Having mentioned the adage 'you win, or you learn' regarding last weeks loss to Canterbury, it should be clear from the scoreline that the Ops 5s very much studied hard this week, earning a great win on home soil with some clinical finishing. Facing a Holcs side with a similar make-up to themselves, the Ops started brightly, pressing the visitors defence, and challenging well in the midfield. With Ben Taylor, Nick Shread, Josh Scooter and Martin Ritchie giving the Holcs defence a hard time, Ops began to exert pressure on the Holcs goal, with ex Ops Keeper Lee Rowney having to be on good form to clear danger. The midfield of Ethan McCarthy, AJ Vignaux and Paul Andrews began to work the ball around well, with the youngsters on the flanks carrying the ball well into opposition territory, and Andrews beginning to find his passing range. At the back, Daniel Andrews, Ross Dryburgh and Dougie Ferguson were calm and collected, and marshalled well by Charlie Milligan in goal. This week, the introduction of the subs didn't cause any disruption, with Guillaume Michotte, Tendai Nyika and father / son combo Ben and Joseph Allon all slotting into their roles with ease. Holcs did step up the pressure, and earned a succession of short corners, but Milligan confidently dealt with their efforts at goal. Ops upped the pace, and were particularly effective when turning over possession in their own half. One such turnover saw Scooter able to surge into the Holcs 23, and send a searching ball across goal for Taylor to tap in. Minutes later, a raking pass from Andrews sr found Scooter on the defensive backline. He calmly drew the keeper, to slot home and make it 2-0 at half time. More of the same was the theme in the team talk, and Ops definitely did just that in the second half. An 'interesting' short corner routine saw the ball find it's way to Allon jr, who squared the ball to his dad to score from close range and make a great memory from their first ever league game playing together in the same team. Ops really turned on the style now, threatening down both flanks with some strong running from all of the wide players, and some solid defence meaning that Milligan was rarely troubled in the Ops goal. 4-0 came when Vignaux pounced on a loose ball to sweep home from close range, and the youngster was involved in the next goal too. Another 'interesting' short corner saw Andrews sr pick out Vignaux in space in the Holcs d, but he cleverly dummied and the ball ran through to Nyika lurking on the back post for a tap in to make it a 5 star performance from the Ops. They were still not done, and played some delightful hockey throughout the team to keep the pressure on. The final goal came from Andrews jr carrying the ball a good 40 yards from deep, taking on several players before hitting the ball into the Holcs d - was his pass a tad high? Holcs certainly thought so, but play carried on, and as the youngsters' powerful hit crashed back off the post, Taylor was on hand to nab his second and seal an excellent victory. The balance of play would certainly suggest that Holcs were very unlucky to lose by such a margin, but this emphasised to the Ops just how important it is to make the most of any scoring opportunities that come your way. A tough early away game at KSport beckons next week - can the Ops hold onto the lessons of the past two weeks and produce more of the great hockey they have been playing this season?