1st Team Vs Truro A

North Devon battled hard in the first game of the season away to Truro A but leftempty handed, losing 3-2. With a very short pre-season and no warm up games, it was expected that the men in red would show signs of rustiness in their first competitive hockey in seven months. This was not to be the case, as seconds after the beginning of the game, forward Ash Thorne robbed the Truro centre back and fed strike partner David Orr, whose scuffed reverse strike was enough to wrong-foot the goalkeeper. 

Truro reacted strongly to going a goal down, and were pressing high up the pitch in order to try and win the ball. They were a little fortunate to be awarded a short corner from this pressure, but a well drilled routine resulted in the equaliser. A second goal for Truro followed, again from a short corner despite North Devon managing to defend the first strike very well. North Devon gathered themselves, and Ben Andrews was denied a certain goal by a last ditch challenge by the home defence. 

The Reds came out in the second half determined to put the pressure on, but fell a further goal behind from another short corner. Continued pressure to get back in to the game led to some lovely possession play, and this resulted in Orr getting his second of the game, a deft deflection on the move past the keeper at his near post. North Devon were close to stealing a point near the end, a ball through a crowd of players surprising midfielder Joe Hastie at the back post where he was unable to react in time. 

Full time was blown, and despite the loss the Reds felt that this was a good performance in the circumstances, and look forward to results picking up in the near future. Man of the match went to Reuben Windley, for an excellent performance from left back.