HOCKEY Coach expected better Canterbury men

Craig Boyne’s early goal was enough to give Canterbrury victory away to City of Peterborough on Sunday, but the playercoach was far from satisfied with his team’s performance.

Boyne had hoped his secondminute strike, following Tom Bean’s baseline run, would be the prelude to a comfortable afternoon against the bottom club in Conference East but it was anything but that.

Boyne acknowledged that the sandbased pitch did not help, but also admitted too many of his players were below par on the day.

He explained: “We made a promising start but we were pretty poor after that.

“We should have had a bunch of goals but our skill execution up front was atrocious and our game awareness was not up to the standard that is needed.

“I was happy we got the three points but not happy with the rest of it.

“I thought our short corner defence was solid, but I think all the boys need to step up to improve the performance of the whole team.

“You’re not always going to be able to play nice hockey on a good playing surface. Sunday was one of those down and dirty games, it was on a difficult pitch three hours away and it’s a game where you just needed to get stuck in and get the job done.”

Canterbury, who remain fourth, host Old Loughtonians at Polo Farm on Sunday, start 12.45pm. They won 2-0 at Loughts in October but Boyne says that doesn’t mean the return will be a formality.

He added: “We certainly won’t be thinking just because we beat them before we’ll do it again. They’ve stepped up a bit of late so we’re expecting a tough game.”