On a day of high emotion following the sad loss of club legend Ali Walls, the 5s took to the Three Hills turf determined to put on a display that would make him proud. The match started with the Ops gaining early control, moving the ball well and pressurising the Holcs defence. The back 5 of Charlie Milligan in goal, Colin Fernandez-Grant, Ross Dryburgh, Dougie Ferguson and Paul Andrews soaked up any Holcs attacks, before springing the midfield of Guillaume Michotte, Martin Ritchie and Daniel Andrews forward. The front three of Ben Taylor, Joe Thresher and Josh Scooter carried the ball and passed well, winning fouls in dangerous positions, leading to a couple of short corners which were well dealt with by the Holcs defence. Substitutions from the packed bench saw Jake Davison, Ray Semadeni (fresh back from his world tour), Tendai Nyika and AJ Vignaux join the fray and keep the Ops on the front foot. Eventually, the pressure told and Taylor picked up the scraps from a goal mouth scramble to finish high into the net. From there though, the tide began to turn. Although the Ops were still playing some lovely attacking hockey, the structure just fell away a bit, and a Holcs breakaway saw the defence overloaded and the Holcs left winger given space to finish. 1-1 at half time. The team talk was simple - keep doing the good stuff. Unfortunately, the first 10 minutes of the second half saw Holcs race into a 3-1 lead. Ops heads did not go down though, and they kept on with the high intensity attacking hockey. One attack saw the Ops pressing high up the pitch, recycling possession well leading to a cross into the attacking circle. Thresher got a little touch on the cross to just lift the ball over the defenders stick, with the ball arriving in the arc for Andrews sr to finish with an emphatic half volley into the net. Holcs were still dangerous, and soon restored the 2 goal margin, to leave the Ops with something of a hill to climb in the final 15 minutes. And climb it they did! Andrews sr again found himself deep in attacking territory, and picked out Davison lurking in space at the top of the circle. The youngster shifted the ball to set himself for a fine reverse stick strike into the bottom corner, to set up a grandstand finish. Ops piled forward in search of the equaliser, with Nyika, Scooter, Andrews jr, Thresher, Taylor and Michotte all running themselves into the ground to carry the ball into the danger areas or move the ball at pace amongst themselves. Several good chances just went wide of the post, and it began to look like the Ops hard work might not get rewarded. With the clock ticking down, Semadeni drove into the attacking 23 and drew at least three serious stick tackles to earn a last ditch short corner. With time up, the routine worked perfectly and Dryburgh powered home a trademark low flick to earn the Ops a hard fought point.
It was great game to play in, and certainly kept the crowd entertained and on tenterhooks - a game that Ali would have relished. Our thanks to Holcs for joining us in honouring him, and for playing in such a great spirit.
RIP Ali Walls, Optimist forever.