Ladies 1s
This won’t take long. We lost 3-2. Thanks to those who came to support.
MoM Dobby, Katherine Abbie and Mog. DoD Mandy for lasting about 10 mins.
Well, let’s put that behind us and move on to next week’s league and Cup games!
Men’s 1s
There’s something about having to travel 2hrs to play an away game that suddenly depletes a team… the 1’s travelled to Wisbech to see if they could continue their undefeated start to the season missing Drewefence, Lloyd and felix.
The journey up to the Fenlands left many of the team wondering why anyone would ever settle in such a flat, depressing landscape. This certainly appeared to be playing on a few members of the team’s minds as Brownie was deemed lethargic in the warm up by the coach and Arkle seemed close to ending it all in the changing rooms, pre game… This attitude certainly wasn’t taken into the game as Forest started well and moved the ball nicely during the opening encounters. Forest were unable however to create too many clear cut chances and the first half finished 0-0, with Ed Heathcock keeping Forest in the game with some great saves.
The second half continued to be tight and it was the home team who took the lead after Stubbing lost his feet and Ed Heathcock was beaten by a sublime finish into the far post. Forest however showed great grit and determination and continued to battle until the end. Their efforts were rewarded as the short corner team triumphed in the final minute – A slick routine finished by Jacko that brought the visitors back on level terms. Probably a fair result and one that means Forest remain undefeated this season…
MOM Ed Heathcock for some great goalkeeping.
POP Me for a combination of poor jokes and trying to push prescription painkillers on Mobo for his hurty hand.
Ladies 2s
In the absence of our lovely captain Kirsten Geekie, the ladies 2s took on County Wanderers 1s in a slightly less organised fashion this week.
We started the game well with a couple of early goals and played a strong first half, with some great passing taking place. County wanderers proved threatening on the rebound, however we finished the first half 4-1 up.
Despite two green cards in the second half, one to County Wanderers for barging, and one to our very own Claire Vaughan, we kept up the our game and scored a further 2 goals to finish with a 6-1 win!
Goal scorers – Emma Jane (2), Rosie (2), Rachel Ellis (1) and Elaine Mckenna (1).
MOM went to Michelle Twitchett for some great goal keeping which helped us to maintain such a good goal difference, and POP went for the third time to Emma for dedicating her MOM vote to a player who didn’t even play (although Nicky Palmer was our number 1 sideline supporter)!
Men’s 2s
6 is the number of the devil. We gave Witham a hellish time, beating them 6-1.
A great team performance, we never really allowed them into the game apart from a shocker of a short corner given away by Matt O’Hara when he inexplicably mis-controlled and ended up back sticking under no pressure on the d, resulting in their only goal. Miraculously though, he avoided POP. Tom Lowe picked up that accolade despite not playing. The full reasons are slightly lost on me, other than wearing a 100% blue outfit and shouting Imran Arshad’s name 300 times in 60 seconds.
Well done to Jack Jacey who got a hat trick and shared MOM with Nati Kerrigan, who was superb at left back/wing.
Congratulations to the other scorers; Kristis Bubnelis, Jonathan Jones and immy.
Team player of the week goes to Glen Lucas who was absolutely gutted when we scored our sixth, because he wanted to score himself. There’s no ‘I’ in team, Glenn but there is in ‘shouldn’t have hit the post’
Ladies 3s
So the Ladies 3’s played a better game this week. We started the game with a positive attitude but were quickly taken back by 2 early goals by Havering. Not losing our determination we made two fabulous breaks through the midfield. Kim shot a blinder cross which was neatly picked up by Amber and smacked into the goal. Isabel followed this soon after with a great drive into the D and clean strike to bring the score 2-2. Havering looked visibly rattled.
The second half however saw us lose concentration and discipline at times and despite quite a few attempts on goal Havering caught us off guard to score two more. One unfortunately a deflection off our defence. So a sad 4-2 loss
We still have a lot to work on but also much to be proud of today ladies.
MOM Claudia who was tireless and unstoppable in midfield. POP to me for running away from the ball. I know nothing about that…obviously, as I wasn’t looking.
Men’s 3s
Frustrating home game on the Olympic pitch which finished with yet another draw which we should have won.
With players missing and Tim Slacks returning from injury, we had to revert back to our old formation of 3-5-2. Solid defending and sexy hockey played by all, we were unable to score from the amount of chances we had.
Witham were very dangerous on the counter attack but the defence were able to cope with most of it and the keeper dealt with the rest (including a few 1 on 1s). Witham weren’t able to make use of their drag flicker on many occasions due to the pacey Gedas getting out so quickly.
Witham scored the first goal but determination and great linking play from the dynamic midfield of Paul, Jon, Tim, Dan and Joe, we managed to put enough pressure on and force the equaliser from Parvin.
More end to end hockey followed and too many failed attempts for the glory goal, time ran out and left us with a disappointing 1-1 draw.
Goal: Parvin Rupra
MOM: Tim & Jon shared the glory
POP: Tim (welcome back)
Ladies 4s
Sorry for the delayed match report! On Saturday morning, Waltham Forest ladies 4s welcomed East London ladies 5s to the Academy. Until about 10 minutes from the end of the game, I was considering reusing last week’s match report because our play was so similar — we were fighting hard with some moments of truly beautiful hockey but were giving away the ball too easily when passing. The opposition had more chances on goal and were leading by 3-0, despite some excellent saves from Sian and a couple of brilliant line clearances from Francis and Rebecca. In the last 10 minutes, though, the opposition managed to bring the scoreline to 6-0 — a result that everyone* agrees did not reflect the game. MOM to Sharnie, POP to Alex for “forgetting” her trophy.
Bring on next week’s game and our first win of the season!
*apart from East London, probably…
Men’s 4s
Today we travelled to Maldon, last seasons Div 7SE champions.
The day didn’t start well, as we had a last minute drop out so down to 11.
Things didn’t improve either, as with 3 minutes on the clock, Ian Bennett got struck with the ball, just above the eye, a nasty blow.
So down to 10, but to our credit, we absolutely dominated the game, retaining possession, moving the ball well, creating chances but, not being clinical enough.
Maldon had pace on the break, and the one time we didn’t deal with a quick break the way we had been, they picked our pocket and took a 1-0 lead, completely against the run of play.
Although after the goal, we continued to dominate, it stayed 1-0 until HT.
During the HT break we just said more of the same but lets be more clinical in front of goal.
Also to his credit Ian rejoined us for the 2nd half, with bandaged head (a la Terry Butcher).
The 2nd half unfortunately from our point of view, was a mirror image of the 1st half, great ball retention, superb expansive fluid hockey, again so profligate in front of goal.
It finished 1-0 Maldon, but we deserved if not all 3 points, or at least a share of the spoils.
Need to work on our finishing and short corner routines.
I’m absolutely gutted we got beat today, don’t like getting beat at the best of times, but todays defeat really hurt, because our general play was so awesome.
Just at the moment, we seem to be getting punished for every little error.
Onwards and upwards, got to stay positive, as I believe if we keep playing this way, we will start to get the results our hockey deserves.
And what better way to start those winning ways, with the visit of Wapping next Weekend.
MOTM Ian Bennet for playing the 2nd half, after picking up a nasty injury.
Also a special mention for Ben Rai Green, who had a superb game, at right back.
Keep positive, keep playing the way we are, and the right results will come, good for us.
#ProudInterimCaptain
Ladies 5’s
What an amazing improvement on last week ! Fantastic girls. I’m so proud of you all. We played some good hockey and worked really hard.
The score is irrelevant because we did fabulously ! (WF 0-5 East London)
Rosemarie made some great saves we had a lot of short corners to defend and you all put in a great amount of effort. Up and up from here.
Men’s 5s
The men’s 5’s welcome a very experienced Brentwood to the academy.
Brentwood started brightly and took when there were awarded a penalty flick. Brentwood had the best off the first half, but 5’s fought back and equalised though Asfar. Making it one a piece at half-time.
The second half started just like the first with Brentwood putting the 5’s under pressure and got there second goal. As the as second half wore on the 5’s began to but Brentwood under pressure and equalised though Aamir.
Both teams looked for the winner and both keeper pulling of great saves. Meaning the game finished 2-2
MOM shared between Eebbbaa and Rhys
Men’s Otters
The Otters had a difficult game away at a very large and powerful Phoenix side. Phoenix took the lead on the break directly from our own short corner, and built on that with a couple of astute deflections, and while we scored to reduce the deficit, another Phoenix goal with the last hit of the first half making it 4-1 proved to be the last of the game.
Tireless work in midfield from Gino and a battling Man of the Match performance from 14-year-old Jordan, who regularly tackled and held off far bigger opponents and provided an attacking outlet on the right, were to the fore as the second half, somehow, remained goalless.
Men’s 1s – Cup Match
The men’s 1s took on an Upminster team several divisions below them in the cup today. With a few people looking a bit worse for wear after a merry Saturday evening, I feared the worst might happen. However Forest found themselves 3-0 in double quick time after Jonesy bagged a couple and Kristis rounded off a flowing team move down the right.
Complacency then crept into the home team’s play leading to Richy Lowe taking pity on a fellow OAP and Drewey deciding that cowering inside the goal when the ball is dribbling towards the line is a valid defensive technique. 3-3 half time.
A strong performance from Rob and clinical finishing from Ash proved too much for Upminster in the second half. 5-4 final score.
Mom: Browny. For caring enough to get someone to lie about him winning it.
Pop: Arkle. Leaving the game 3 minutes early to play (and lose badly) at badminton.
Juniors
Little Forest travelled to Southend this morning for our second tournament of the season. #hockeyfamilly going on here… several sons/daughters getting in on the action!
The U10 girls were the best troopers of the day, for 3 of them it was their first tournament, but you woudn’t know it with scores of:
3-0 win vs Brentwood (Siobhan 2, Rose 1 (Mel’s daughter)
0-0 draw vs Old Southendians mixed team (a friendly as they had boys)
4-0 win vs Brentwood (Siobhan 3, Cleo 1 (L5 Pearl’s sister)
1-0 win vs Southend & Benfleet (last minute winner from Rose again!)
Thanks to Francis for coaching (and Jessica almost scored!)
A young U10 boys side passed brilliantly, had close matches and despite one heavy loss finished off with a win…
0-1 loss vs Southend & Benfleet
0-2 loss vs Brentwood
0-5 loss vs Brentwood
1-0 win vs Southend & Benfleet (Sonny, Ben Rai-Green’s son scored)
The U12 girls showed they are at the right level with really close matches:
1-2 loss vs Brentwood (Ella, Jane Blackborow’s daughter scored)
0-0 draw vs Old Southendians
0-1 loss vs Southend & Benfleet
1-0 win vs Brentwood (Charis scored)
The U12 boys had two teams: younger Forest B coached by Richard Farrow (long standing club members will know who
this is! He’s also Ray Sefton’s bro-in-law), and Waltham A coached by Matthew Hale
Younger Forest B improved massively on their previous all-losing tournament, with results:
0-0 draw vs S&B
0-0 draw vs Old Southendians
2-0 win vs Brentwood (Richard’s sons William & Matthew scoring)
0-1 loss to Havering
Waltham A
lost 0-1 to Havering
won 3-0 vs Brentwood (Mohad, Kayode & Dhillon – Ben Rai-Green’s other son)
lost 3-4 vs Old Southendians (lost it in final seconds – Kayode 1, Mohad 2)
won 3-2 vs Southend & Benfleet (Mohad 2, Zaki 1)
Despite ending the day in the ambulance with the U12 Goalkeeper Tiana (Michelle’s niece) – who possibly dislocated her elbow… it was a great day for Waltham Forest teams. Keep an eye on those names, in 3-5 years time they could be playing alongside you!!!!
