Freddie Thomas became the youngest player ever to hit a hat trick for Hertford HC men, as our quartet of U13s led a full strength 7th team, boosted by Matt Earle and Zak Thompson on leave from the 6s, to an impressive win against a stubborn Broxbourne side who looked much better than their lowly league position suggested.

Broxbourne had the better of the first 10 minutes and deserved to go ahead, but for the rest of the half we worked out the good channels through midfield, made good use of early angled balls behind their defence, and played delightful combinations wide down the right. At 2 - 1 up we got a little complacent, played ourselves into trouble and let Broxbourne back in the game with a penalty corner equaliser right on half time.

We got back in front early in the 2nd half, only to lower our guard again and concede a 3rd. We learned our lesson after that and kept up positional discipline, passing precision and a relentless workrate for the rest of the game, adding two more brilliantly crafted goals and rarely letting Broxbourne into our 23.

Tom Norman and Kris were the other goalscorers, with Tom playing an outstanding role behind the front two, Zack and Benedict wrapped up the midfield with Jo and Lewis in creative support. Matt gave us an added dimension as safe pivot for back passes and inventive distribution.

We should have had two or three more goals at the death as Broxbourne tried to press up the pitch, but we lost our scoring touch. The great thing for me was that out passing became slicker and more unselfish as the game went on (it's usually the opposite), and we finally learned that there is no point whacking the ball at the keepers pads from a tight angle. Our best two goals and most of our late near misses came from balls cut back towards the penalty spot.

Eight wins from 12 sets a new record for the 7s, beating last year's high water mark of 7 league wins - and it's only early February!