Badgers hockey is a great way to introduce younger players into the full pitch game, so it was an easy decision to host a Westleigh V Westleigh game, and allow some of the younger players who have not taken part in Badgers before the chance of playing a full pitch game.
25 kids turned up to play and the sides were evenly matched between the older Badgers and the new Badgers and some great action followed with the non-bib side spending a lot of the first half attacking. Credit to Goalkeeper Theo who was amazing in keeping out all the shots. The green bibs also put in a massive defensive shift with Noah controlling things from the back in a very calm and assured manner.

The second half was a more open game and this is when the goals eventually came. Darcey was first up pouncing on a great save from Neva and hitting in the rebound. Non bibs were 1-0 up. Sebastian then scored a nice hit from the top of the D making it 2-0. The Bibs team didn’t give up and battled hard with Poppy scoring a very smart goal with a well placed slap into the bottom corner. The non-bibs finished strongly though with Torby hitting in a hard first time shot well assisted by Emett and then Sebastian scoring another fine solo effort.

Aside from the goals there was lot of great play, good ball pace, hard running and committed tackles and the coaches and parents watching were very impressed. It is a big step up to play on a full pitch for 70 minutes and the new players really did do a great job.
The future looks very bright indeed and Westleigh will continue to make every effort to get as much hockey as possible for this great group of players.
Thanks for the Coaches for arranging this fixture and for the great support from the sidelines. The Club will try to do more of these when the regular Badgers squad does not have a game on.