Chesterfield v Doncaster 2

Saturday 16th September 2023
Chesterfield v Doncaster 2

The first game of the new season saw a new look Chesterfield first team welcome Doncaster hockey club to St Mary’s for the much anticipated first game of the season.

A shaky start for Chesterfield, filled with defensive errors led to Doncaster scoring 2 early goals in the first 5 minutes, capitalising on Chesterfield mistakes. Managing to rally themselves, the team in green finally woke up and began to play their style of hockey. A few missed chances for Chesterfield gave them confidence to continue to press, worrying the Doncaster defence. However, Doncaster continued to fight back, building on their early lead and scoring a penalty corner, to make it 3 - 0 at half time.

Chesterfield came out fighting in the 2nd half, looking a completely different team. Dominating the middle ground for much of half, saw Jack Hartley and Louis Johnson narrowly missing out on goals. Zach Scothern worked hard in centre midfield, controlling play and enabling defence and the forward line to link up. A far better performance in the 2nd half, not conceding any more goals, but unfortunately Chesterfield were also unable to find the back of the net resulting in the final score of 3 - 0.

Captain Rob Cooke said “Not the start we wanted to the season, defensively we weren’t up to the standard and Doncaster rightly punished us for it. We’ve tried some new things which didn’t quite work, but we’ve put the effort in preseason and I’m confident that if we continue to work hard in training it will come together. Lots of positives to take away, and as always a brilliant effort from the younger lets in the middle of the pitch. Their work rate is great!We had 4 players making their debut today, and we’ve welcomed other new players who will make their debut soon, it’s a new look team from the last few seasons and an exciting time to be part of the team.”

A stand out performance for Zach Scothern earned him the player of the match award.

Chesterfield Men's 1s have an early break next weekend and will return to St Mary’s on 30th September against Durham City 1s.