You Might Win Something With Kids
Posted by Joseph Cliffe on 8 November 2021
You Might Win Something With Kids
The Saint caught up with Ollie Fosbury last week for a socially-distanced phone call with the young captain of the Second Team for an update on the season so far.
“It’s been a slow start to the season with four losses from four games. But we had our first league win at the weekend, 3-1 against Boots. It’s been a long time coming and there have been some frustrating results, particularly a 4-0 away loss to North Notts, a game that we really should have won. But there have been signs of improvement, particularly in a 6-3 loss to a young University of Nottingham side where we played well and could have come away with a good result.”
And it was Ironic that Ollie described Nottingham University as a young side, as at 20 years old, Fosbury must be one of the youngest captains of the Second Team ever. But this is testament to Saints’ youth development program that, aided on the pitch by the more experienced heads of Jon Noble and Jack Zoers-Benstead (24?!), Ollie is able to introduce even younger players such as James Barnwell and Harry Fidler of the Fidler dynasty to Second Team hockey.
“So we’re looking forward to our trip to Derwent to build on our form and hopefully start a winning run. It is a long way to go though…”, said Fosbury as a misty look appeared in his eyes. Which was a good trick over the telephone.
Sadly it was not to be. I caught up with Ollie a few days later following defeat in Derbyshire. “It was another potentially good performance; Hamish French set up Ed Arnold for a well worked opening goal to put us one-up, but Derwent responded well and we finished up losing 3-1, despite a solid performance from defensive midfielder Marti Vila Riera to win Man of the Match”
Another hard lesson for the young captain, but with much promise shown by all the young players coming into the Twos and throughout the club. The future looks bright. Well, black. But in a good way.
In other news
Youth marches on, and on Sunday, Saints U12 girls played a fab tournament beating Bromsgrove 8-1, and Old Sills 3-2. A 4-1 loss to Stourport completed the scoreline, a 12-7 overall victory if I’m not mistaken. Ably coached by Kathryn Wallace and Maddie Down the girls look to be showing great promise, even with Max Wilkinson doing his best to put them off.
Keep it up folks, and we look forward to hearing your next set of results.
