Bedford 5s Match Report: 12th November 2022

Luton took a weaker side to face Bedford than pre-season and after observing a minute’s silence to honour our fallen heroes the game started at a frantic pace, perhaps a little too fast for some of Luton’s players who struggled to cope with the well drilled movement of Bedford. Luton showed great resilience especially in defence restricting any sorties into their D and if/when Bedford did get in, they found Joe once again in excellent form to snuff out their chances. The first half ended 0-0 despite Luton rarely getting into Bedfords danger zones.

The second half ,much like the first ended with Bedford attacking from all angles and being repelled by Rory, Iain, Ian, Charlie, and Joe. Hayden moved further up the pitch and was starting to have an influence in the middle part of the park but again our attacks pitted out when we tried to advance further into their D. Tony & Nathan battled and both had to sit out for parts of the second half due to injuries, but they patched themselves up and bravely came back on.

Midway through the second half Beford scored from a short corner which gave them added impetus to push up and scored their second goal from another short corner where it appeared that time stood still before the ball eventually went in. It was all Bedford now and 5 minutes after taking a 2-0 lead Bedford were awarded a flick whilst we were 1 man down, as Syed was given a straight yellow on the 65th minute but Joe saved it well and Luton battled until the end; the game ended with a 2-0 loss.

I have nothing but admiration for our defensive unit but that’s not enough for a 70-minute game of hockey you also have to have an attacking threat of your own, we did not and Beford exploited that but even then, only scoring via set plays; that’s the only positive that Luton can take from this match.

MOM: Joe Gough