Ladies 1s

What’s that you said? L1s won 3-1 and Funzone Philippa Leguen De Lacroix scored a hat-trick? Yes indeed! Great team effort and special mention to Sophie who merrily lined up after a goal on the oppo’s side.

Sophie was saved from being DoD by Phil who went for a run/tackle/spin off the pitch. MoM Katrina Hurrell for a splendid turn at centre back.

Men’s 1s

Men’s 1s headed to Saffron Walden looking to get back to winning ways against a high flying Saffron Walden, knowing that a victory would allow them to leapfrog their opponents. Forest headed into the game with the added bonus that for the first time this season the captain and coach had a full squad available to pick from.

The game started at a frenetic pace with Saffron Walden having the best of the early exchanges. Ed Heathcock making a reflex stick save from a Saffron Walden short corner, followed by a sharp double save from subsequent short to keep the Forest clean sheet intact. What was promising was to see Forest defending resolutely as a team, an important element in what was the first goal of the match. Lloyd Francis, leading the half court press, stole possession on the halfway line, drove towards the Saffron Walden D, and fed into Shuhel Malique who drew the keeper and slipped the ball under his arm to Ed Jackson to slot the ball home into the open goal. Forest took a 1-0 lead into half time.

Buoyed by their display at the end of the first half Forest pushed on. Richard Arkle was instrumental in Forest’s second as he drove down the right hand side to set up Liam Radley. Soon after Ed Jackson bizarrely celebrated a Forest long corner with more gusto than he did his goal (as he still thought own goals were allowed and went on a lap of the pitch to celebrate) and then fluffed a golden opportunity in the D. Saffron Walden pushed up the pitch looking to get back into the game which allowed Forest to exploit the space in behind as Liam Radley added his second of the game and Forest’s third. Saffron Walden did get one back but it was no more than a consolation goal. Final Score 3-1.

Many positives to be taken, and the 1s will be looking to take those into next weekend’s game against second in the league Spalding.

MOM – Ed Heathcock

POP – Ed Jackson (for the great celebration for a long corner)

Ladies 2s

With the last minute addition of Nicky Palmer back in action (phew!) L2s went out strong against East London 2s. 2-2 at half time with a cheeky tap in from Rosie & smashing short corner hit from Rachel Ellis. Tried to keep it up 2nd half with a super third from Elaine Mckenna and great goal saving from Michelle Twitchett but East London were a good match for us and ran away with a 5-3 win.

FYI no idea if goals were in that order, I didn’t even know the score & I’m awarding joint MOM to Lydia Hale & Elaine for great play throughout just because I can.

Men’s 2s

A Halloween special from WFHC M2s today, proper Jekyll and Hyde. We went 2-0 down early on, then Imran Arshad scored a sublime goal on the volley. Unfortunately we subsequently went 3-1 down, but Ben Norton got us back to 3-2.

After some totally disastrous play, including a ludicrous own goal from Ed Bear Stubbing, we ended up 5-2 down with about 15 or 20 minutes to go and to make things worse, ‘sicknote’ Davis had sloped off with a hamstring injury.

Ashley-Mark Perhat came to the rescue getting us back to 5-3, followed by the most effeminate celebration seen since the Ladies 3s scored.

I scored our fourth (despite Immy’s best efforts to clear it!) then MOM Kristis Bubnelis got us level, sorry Yogi Patel there’s no way you can be MOM having conceded 5. Tom Lowe got us ahead with a beautiful drag flick off a short corner and Ben bagged his 2nd and our 7th in the last minute, after an unbelievable ball from Immy, when he definitely should’ve just held the ball in the corner!

Final score 7-5. Thank …… (Insert your own chosen religious leader or expletive) for that.

Ladies 3s

Men’s 3s

This is going to be a very boring match report as I’m still bored from the game today.

We had NO short corners (even though we spent 45mins @ training practicing them) the defence were so good I had nothing to do.
The midfield were like a Halloween possessed mental asylum during their yard break that didn’t stop running.
Half time came with us 5-0 up and strict instructions to score a couple more goals and play a bit crapper to give me something to do in the second half.

More great play in the second half but only 2 slip ups, Saffron Walden managed to get 1 shot but hit the post (obviously the keeper had it covered).

Finally I managed to touch the ball when Saffron Walden got a shot off to which was saved.

The game ended with an 8-0 win.

Scorers: Tim (1), Joe (1), Nate (2), Nati (2), Dan (1), Matt (1)

MOM: Steve (Clean Sheet & 100% record)

POP: Tim (Just because)

Ladies 4s

I am absolutely flipping delighted to be able to report a well-deserved 2-1 win for the Ladies 4s at home versus Southend 3s today. Coach Pani decided to try a new formation that just looked great on us, if I do say so myself. Full disclosure: we had 3 subs whereas Southend were struggling on 10 players. However, our play was markedly better than usual – our passing was generally calm and measured, although we were hanging onto the ball too long on occasion. Within five minutes, Kwai had put one away, and we continued to dominate play for the rest of the game. Our new formation meant that we were light at the back, which Southend capitalised on scoring the equaliser before half time.

Despite having many, many… many… chances on goal in the second half, we decided not to score the winning goal until five minutes before the end, in order to keep things interesting for Pani and our other spectators. The goal itself was a beautiful hit from a short corner from player of the match Minty, who had stepped off a plane from Barcelona an hour before.

Seriously, Ladies, I couldn’t be happier.

MOM: Minty

POP: Kiesha, for a spectacular diving display that no one saw. Although maybe Matt Lovell, because he seemed upset he hadn’t got it in a while.

Men’s 4s

Firstly I didn’t play today, I had to umpire, and so had a very different perspective on the game.

Today we travelled to a high flying Clacton team.

From the start Clacton were exceptionally strong, their passing and movement was very, very, good. And it was a real struggle for us to get to grips with our opposition.

Clacton took a deserved 1-0 lead after 25 minutes, after pretty much dominating that period.

The 4s did have a couple of fluid counter attacks, but unfortunately it broke down in the final third, which has been a factor in our results this season. So the guys went into the break 1-0 down.

To the guys eternal credit, they absolutely bossed the 2nd half, playing intelligent simple hockey, and creating chances, but always knowing Clacton had pace on the break.
And it was from one of these breaks. Clacton forced a short corner from which they got their 2nd goal, not a great strike, which went through the keepers and the post man’s legs, 2-0.

The 4s kept going and pushing for a goal to get them back in the game, but with their Keeper, made a couple of good saves, which meant another defeat, undeserved, with the level we are playing at.

I know the results will come, but it’s hard to swallow, that our worse performance of the season ended in our only win.

We just need to keep working hard, stay confident and keep believing in what we are doing, because I know we are playing the game in the right way.

A big thank you to Alex Heath for stepping into the skipper’s role today, and also for accepting to take on the Vice Captains’ role on a permanent basis.

MOTM: Kamran Arshad- Solid in the tackle, good distribution and commanding his defence brilliantly.

Ladies 5s

Men’s 5s

The Men’s 5’s continue to remain undefeated after a 2-2 draw with East London 8’s.

The 5’s started the game very slowly from the 10:00 am pushback (looked like there could have done with a couple more hours sleep).

In this period East London took the deserved lead, which seemed to kick the 5’s into life. An equaliser was then scored by Josh Field with the help of a couple of deflection.

The 5’s took the lead after Aamir played the ball across the D which was controlled by Zain to shoot and score from the top of the D. So the 5’s went into the break leading 2-1.

Once again the 5’s made a lacklustre start to the second half, which let East London in for the equaliser and that’s how the game ended. With the East London keeper making some fine saves to keep it that way.

A few things for the 5’s to work on, but can’t fault the effort by all.

Otters

The Otters dominated a fiercely-competitive away match at Romford with Captain-for-the-day Peter driving the team forward, Man of the Match Gino’s mazy runs leaving opponents trailing in his wake, and Joao winning every contestable ball in midfield. Yet somehow they came away with a 1-0 defeat, as Romford scored with their only attack of the first half.
The Otters were let down by poor finishing in the first half, and lack of a precise final ball in the second as an increasingly-congested Romford defence managed to hold out.