Oxford Hawks Mens 1’s vs Reading 2s – 29.09.24

The first exciting home match of the year saw Hawks take on Reading down at the fortress.

The first half displayed a strong start for the hawks side, demonstrating control over the game with countless D entries. Unfortunately it came with no success, as unlucky chances, and some excellent Reading goal keeping kept the hawks scorecard to 0. Down our defensive end 2 Reading goals on the counter just before the end of the half left us disheartened, we had to go into the second half with a scoresheet not reflecting the performance.

Nonetheless the second half started quickly and a goal 3 minutes in from Jack Hobbs had our heads held high thirsty for more. A dry spell followed with both teams working relentlessly for some circle success. Unfortunately it went Reading way with a goal in the 55th minute leaving hawks requiring a response. We yet again pressed with determination, Jack Hobbs managing to sneak another goal in at the 60th.

Hawks rallied around this momentum, striving to level the game. However, we lost sight in the last 10 minutes as a clinical Reading side put 3 goals against us. This left the final score at 6-2 to Reading.

This left the lads walking off the pitch disappointed, with dropped heads and somber tones, it was wise words from Thom Sobey that reminded us to look at ourselves, and that we had actually played some really nice hockey, and executed some of the stuff we’ve been working towards in training. Feeling the scoreline didn’t particularly reflect the game we reset, ready to train hard and go again next week away to Isca.