They call him the white Nelson Mandela of Ealing and if there was a Nobel prize for hockey he'd win it.

Ryan Schlanders was the difference between the two sides on Saturday, scoring an exquisite hat-trick including two incredible solo efforts. Like his namesake, Ryan gets a little older and frailer every year but his enthusiasm and reputation remain undimmed.

Mill Hill's first came from nowhere (well strictly speaking from Dan Stockhill, nicknamed nowhere because that's where he's to be found when needed in defence). Ryan picked up the ball on the touchline and the wrong side of halfway. He beat the first defender on the turn and had passed two more by the time he reached the 25 metre line. As the cover arrived, Ryan fired inside the front post.

The visitors, Oxford City, quickly drew level but another rangy run saw Ryan sweep past the keeper and finish clinically.

But again, Oxford were back on terms, converting one of a number of short corners.

At 2-2, the home side were reliant on Marc Scut showing some of the salvage skills that enable him to resurrect lost causes in his day job. In the same inimitable spirit of unorthodox expediency that sees him turn a shaky wreck of a smashed-up VW into a solid and reliable motor he rebuilt the Mill Hill defensive line. And, as with all Marc's engineering feats, the reinforced structure held together - at least for the 40 minutes that remained.

As Marc would tell you, however, once a motor reaches it's fourth decade, it's going to break down regularly. So it was no surprise to see Dave Evans in tears on the sideline again after injuring himself running into a team-mate's stick. The injury seemed serious at first but by half-time the centre-back seemed as capable as he ever was of returning to the field.

It's unusual that Captain Pete has a full squad to pick from. The chances of everyone being available are pretty similar to those of seeing Batman and Bruce Wayne in the same room at the same time. But luckily the team on Saturday was pretty close to being as good as it gets and, more shockingly still, Mill Hill had 12 allowing them to cope without the defensive lynchpin.

The halfway break was to prove crucial as a raging inferno of a team talk by Pete (think Sven Goran Ericsson on traquilisers) fired up the home team. "Come on boys," tap, tap goes the stick against the shin-pad. "We're better than this." Tap tap. Tap tap. "They're not as good as we're making them look." Tap tap. Eerily, the monotonous sound of stick on shin-pad lulled me back to my youth, sitting in my granny's sitting room as the carriage clock on the mantelpiece ticked away and the old lady droned on about jam-making and the WI.

But Pete's speech, with more taps than a B&Q showroom, clearly had the desired effect. Although Oxford continued to win short corners they were unable to convert, unlike lively Craig McIntyre who notched a scrappy goal after the umpire played "advantage."

Swift and neat passing set up the fourth, Apay being picked out in the D before playing the ball square for Ryan to tally up his third.