Ladies 1s

Can you believe it, L1s went and won again! 3-2 v Blackheath!

First thing to share is that Mog hurt her shoulder opening Strongbow. Then today these things happened in some order:

We did some wonderful passing

Lucy Butcher scored twice!

Jenny Field worked out if she runs to the ball she gets it

Katherine Abbie scored, she also bulldozed a few players

They scored twice

I got a ball in the face so will be going smokey-eyed tonight

Claire Shrimpie Boyling was saying something but no-one could hear as her voice is all funny

Katrina Hurrell did a wonderful five min solo dribble, we all thought she was doing so well none of us went to help her out

Hmmm anything else team!?

Thanks Ashley-Mark Perhat for umpiring.

MoM Lucy Butcher

DoD Fish the younger for lowering the tone in text messages amongst other things

Ladies 2s

Ladies 3s

Ladies 3’s played away at Maldon today, the horizontal snow hitting the wind screen on the way there was slightly concerning, but the power of Minty Bop Hopkins positive thinking meant that once there the sun was shining

Despite the cold we played probably the best we have all season, there was some fantastic team work and passing play. So many were on form, Ros doing some fantastic passing on wing, Zoe working tirelessly in mid, Katie Illman with fab passes into the D, corking shots on goal from Jordan, Roz, Minty and Zoe. Katie Barraclough getting TWO goals grin emoticon:-D and Martha taking on a forward 1:1 and intimidating the hell out of her, then going on to save a penalty flick!

Final score 2-2 (we so should have won!)

Player of the match – Martha

Lots of thanks to Catriona, Mel and Minty for subbing and providing the side line cheering and chanting!

Ladies 4s

Men’s 1s

Men’s 2s

Men’s 3s

The men’s 3s played away to Colchester in blizzard like conditions, the first half was pretty even with forest dominating the first 10 mins but they grabbed 2 lucky goals and went into half time 2-0 up.

We stepped up in the second half putting the opposition under lots of pressure and getting into more attacking areas, we finally got our deserved goal with Rob deflecting in a short corner.

At the other end MOM Thomas pulled off a number of great saves.

We kept pressing and fighting hard to find an equaliser but it wasn’t going to be our day, well played to every player who worked their socks off till the final whistle.

Full time score was 2-1

Steve managed another full game out on pitch, Paul got POP for finally realising that we don’t play in luminous green socks!

Men’s 4s

Fixture: WFHC M4s vs Thurrock 2s (3rd vs last)

Pushback: 1pm

Venue: La Academia

Weather: Over clothes until PB

Fact of the Day: Thurrock HC players are fined if they attend Teas without showering.

After it took about 10-15mins for the M4s to wake up from a post elevenses siesta, showers were certainly needed for Thurrock as Forest worked them hard, popping off the passes like ball carrying was going out of fashion.

Forest created a metric (or imperial pretty much the same weight) ton of chances once they began to take hold of the game.

After many squandered chances by all (but mainly Frank Dijkstra) it was all about the goals…

Frank eventually buried one off a short to big relief all round, then Alex ’Solskjær’ Heath came on to bag a tidy second and Frank scored again to make it 3 by half time.

In the second half Frank completed his quadtrick and what ended up looking like a fairly routine 5-0 win against a struggling Thurrock, but actually belied what was strong performance from both teams.

Match highlight: Ball came out to me about a foot in from the base line a few feet from the goal and I somehow chipped the ball over the keeper, and stretching defender. It kissed the bar as it nestled in the opposite side-netting. It was disallowed for dangerous play. I’ll take that, normally the only thing in danger from my shooting is low flying geese.

MOTM was Frank ‘A Dutch of Class’ Dijkstra and fully deserved for some top, top poaching (in the end!)

Would like to add a shout out to the defensive unit for a very strong performance and first clean sheet since the second game of the season!

Otters

The Otters took on a strong, but numerically-challenged Harlow side at the Academy. Making more effective use of limited possession Harlow led 2-1 at the break, Euan’s first goal temporarily making him joint-leading scorer with 11 others. We increasingly dominated play in the second half as the opposition tired though Harlow were still dangerous from set plays and we trailed 3 times in a flawed but thrilling performance before we finally took a 5-4 lead which we managed to hold on to. Second-half goals came from Alastair and a first for Mudassar, with a brace from Irfan whose energy and creativity on the ball made him the clear Man of the Match.

Scorers: Euan Mossman; Alastair Mossman; Mudassar Arshad; Irfan Sajid (2).