STATS, STATS & MORE STATS

If your lucky enough to hang around the BOE 2nd XI lads you will know that they are a witty bunch who love their stats. Matches, training, team talks & socials, you name it, these boys live & die by their love of stats.

With a win percentage of just 50% last year the lads are delighted to have a 100% record at this stage of the season. And in a game where they registered 15 shots on goal, 4 goals, 6 penalty corners, 11 long corners, won 45 free hits & conceded 3, they will be happy that the 66% overall possession meant they ended up with 3 points on day 1.

The lads were all over their stats at training and we all knew that if we maintained a higher average ball retention ratio, then we would most definitely win 68% of the time!

The 2's are a new batch of fine men, Archie & Ders have sadly been put into 'Wilde & Brown's' retirement home and the Dutch menace, Erik Dewit, has flown the nest. Andy Clover has not been seen since December 2014 and nobody seems to remember that he still has t been found. Not to mention Jimmy Morrison heading off to the 47th best uni in the country & James Florence cutting off his own hand! All in all 51% of the team had changed but the replacements were of very high quality.

Josh Self has been outstanding all preseason & was on fire again today as at just 14 years and 272 days he embarrassed most of the OB's team and made them look silly. Jake Lamplough has been excellent too and is no doubt complaining about playing really well at the moment, cheer up Jake! In Rob Hughes we have adopted a rock & the returning Ed Bull was a dream at Left half. Andy 'Peter Pan' Slack keeps getting better & Ed Forshaw was his awesome witty self again. In Alex Borwick we have acquired a Steve McManaman esq player as all his arms and legs help him about the park, I just hope he gets some contact lenses to help him see. Stats suggest people with contact lenses see 100% better than those that don't, but need them!

The game was excellent, the first 14 minutes BOE bossed it and, the nippy Josh Self was in, a great press and Josh was round the keeper only for a covering defender to knock him off his stride.

Disaster struck as Zain Malik from 1D entered the fray, put in a nasty stick assault, got 0% of the ball, then we were 1-0 down after a penalty corner. Thank fully OB's were feeling generous and, as 8 people missed the ball, Edd Thorogood located the bottom corner to improve on last years rather shoddy 1 in 12 at Xmas. Again BOE returned the favour, and again it was a corner. A ball not cleared was then hit off both posts, GK & man and then finally volleyed in....1-2......(we had only scored 33.3% of the goals in the game at this point!)

BOE roared back and after some really neat work from Moody Jake he laced a rifle of a ball just over the bar on his reverse mega tomahawk. We evened up the goal sharing % by half time as a sloppy short corner saw Zain 'Prem' Malik kill the man on the line and make it 2-2 from a scrappy short corner.

41% of the time we were drawing at half time last year we went on to win, well it's at 100% right now. Eddie Forshaw wrote his own name on the MOTM trophy as he flicked in 2 superb drag flicks to give us a 66% short corner failure record. At 4-2 we were comfy, so comfy Iain, Ed & Rob wanted to make the game more fun. With 5 minutes left the lads at the back registered a 0.3% pass completion record & gifted the oppo a 3rd.

By my record, we had made, assisted & finished all 100% of the games goals! Our 15 shots showed the forwards need to be more potent but, the long and the short of it is, you score 4, they score 3, we get 3 points. Job Done.

That's a 100% record lads, keep it up.

MOTM - Ed Forshaw

Too good...
Jakes shot
Eddies flicks
Dan Moore skills

Too bad....
The team possession game!
Aerials
Dan Moore language
Jake falling over
Prems tackling