Double delight for Cambridge City in flying start to England Hockey campaign
Cambridge City had double delight at the start of the new England Hockey League season.
The women’s team took centre stage first last Saturday, with a trip to Southampton in the Vitality Women’s Hockey League, Division One South to take on Trojans.
With an impressive display, the young side surged into a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Kat Petch, Emily McStea and Hannah Bloy.
Amy Sheehan pulled a late goal back for Trojans, as City secured a 3-1 win.
It was then the turn of the men to deliver the goods, in the Men’s Hockey League, Division One North against derby rivals City of Peterborough at Wilberforce Road.
“I’ve not been nervous before playing a game in a long time,” said new head coach Grant Gilmour.
“Sport has just been what it is, but because of the new role and just taking it on in the second highest tier in the country, I genuinely woke up in the morning feeling a little nervous.
“But it was just such a good team result.
“It took us about 15 minutes to get on top of the game, and then in the second quarter the goals came.”
City’s first came from Alex Bilalis-Stone in the 13th minute, and that was followed by efforts from Josh Biddlecombe and Kieran Walton, with an effort by Chris Clarkson sandwiched between the second and third goals.
“In the second quarter, we just completely outplayed them and scored two goals quickly in the space of five minutes,” said Gilmour.
“One of them being from our centre-back Kieran Walton, who has come from Exeter in the National Premier last year, and he literally almost ran the whole length of the pitch, a couple of one-twos and then just put it in the back of the net.
“He is happy because it’s his first goal in five years, and he also got man of the match, he was brilliant.”
It was the perfect start for Gilmour after a number of players left during the summer, with youngsters stepping up to the mark.
And he was delighted with the way the team took to the task in hand.
“We’ve got the game plan and know what we’re doing as a group of players. They are doing it and sticking to it,” he said.
“We sat on a three-quarter press and actually we didn’t really need to change too much for the majority of the game.
“They didn’t really test us until we went through patches of play where we lost a bit of discipline and we gave it to them, instead of them making it for themselves.
“Another day, the more we play, the more games that go along, the more goals will come, the more in sync we will be and the more we will be playing more naturally together.
“But this match was such a good taster for what it is to come from the boys because they are such a good group of players.
“We should have been five or six up. I’m not sure how strong Peterborough will be this year. I don’t think they’re the strongest in our league, but it was just good to get off to a winning start, especially against our local rivals.”
Gilmour also heard from predecessor Gareth Andrew before the match started.
“It was really nice because Gaz, the old head coach who is now at Beeston, sent me a message saying: ‘Good luck today mate, do them over for me’, because obviously he used to play there as well,” he added.