Petersfield under-eight Hurricanes v Hartley Wintney under-eight Falcons: PETERSFIELD under-eight Hurricanes learned a couple of harsh lessons on Saturday – one about teamwork, and one about the perils of playing a predominantly winter sport.

There wasn’t much they could do about the latter, with Hartley Wintney Falcons graciously agreeing to switch a scheduled home game to the all-weather surface at The Petersfield School (TPS) after their regular pitch in the north of the county fell victim to a wet week.

The Hurricanes’ own pitch at Love Lane suffered the same fate, hence the agreed switch to the surface at a windswept TPS for this North East Hampshire Youth League game. And the perishing wind certainly had an impact on the game, with both sides getting the benefit of the wind at the backs for half the game. The Falcons took full advantage, the Hurricanes did not.

And that despite the best efforts of the Hurricanes’ brave goalkeeper, James Port, who made several good saves and commanded his area with courageous authority.

At the other end, and despite having the lion’s share of possession in their opponents’ half for much of the game, the Hurricanes were far too often guilty of selfish play, with individual runners trying to take on too many players on a much bigger pitch than they are used to with team-mates well placed. The end result was that the Hurricanes failed to score for the first time this season.

The closest the Hurricanes came to scoring was when Alex Garlant hit a post, while Taylor Pearce had a shot cleared off the line. Harry Timmons was as lively as ever trying to kick-start the Hurricanes attacks while impressing at the back and mopping up any potential Falcons attacks.

Oscar Walker was, as ever, a willing worker at both ends of the pitch, Connor Redpath revelled in midfield tussles for possession, and Finlay Stafferton and Benjamin Oru helped break up several promising Hartley Wintney moves.