Ladies 1s

L1s win again! A trip to wet and windy Brentwood wasn’t too appealing but we were straight off the blocks and 0-1 up within a minute thanks for a deflection from Faith off a strike by Katherine Abbie. Soon we were 0-2 up, another deflection by Faith. But just before half time we let one in off a short. 1-2 at half time!

We pushed hard again in the second half and earned a short. Slip to the left for Philippa Leguen De Lacroix to strike, 1-3. Not wanting to make it easy for ourselves Kathy thought she’d score an own goal to make it 2-3 with 2 to go but we held on for the win!!

MoM Lucy Butcher. DoD clean sweep for Kathy!!

Men’s 1s

On a wet and windy Saturday afternoon, Waltham Forest welcomed high scoring Spalding. It was clear from the start that Spalding meant business. From our push back at the start, they quickly pressed high in an attempt to win the ball back straight away. However with nearly their whole team in our half Forest broke. After switching the ball around a few times, Drew found himself with time to enter the D and get a shot off, which was going wide and thankfully Lloyd deflected the shot top corner. 1-0 up inside the first 2 minutes.

Spalding continued to press very high up the pitch, yet Forest were able to pass themselves out of trouble. And when they did attack, the Forest team defence was too strong. Midway through the 1st half Danny found himself with space on the right hand side to drive along the baseline and pass the ball to Mal, who slotted the ball bottom corner. Forest had more chances due to Spalding still pressing high, leaving loads of space behind the defence for Jacko and Lloyd to run into. Yet Forest were unable to increase their lead.

At half time we were told to keep the work rate up and put away our chances. Forest’s hard work rate kept an all-out attack from Spalding with them pressing even higher. Their direct play was having no effect. Spalding finally pulled one back thanks to one of the most bizarre new rules to be introduced. They were awarded a harsh short corner. Their first attempt was pushed out wrong and Forest were able to defend it, only for them to be told to take it again as one of their players had entered the D too early. They then scored the resulting short corner. However Forest didn’t let that get them down and continued to create chances with Liam Radley missing a number of them, mainly due to his hair being in his eyes.

Forest controlled the remainder of the game while Spalding ran out of ideas and lost their temper, going down to 10 men. And so it ended 2-1, an excellent result which sends out a message to the league that Waltham Forest are a force to be reckoned with. Next week we travel to Long Sutton, hoping to build on what has been an excellent start to the season.

Pop- Liam Radley. Missed a lot of chances. Also asked for an Alice band at half time as his curly locks were getting in his eyes.

Mom- Arkle. All round very good game. Loads of energy and played a part in the goals.

Ladies 2’s

Ladies 2’s might have lost 5-2 but no representation of how much effort we put in. With no subs we went out strong (ish) (DoD to Elaine Mckenna for late start – she blames slow service at Morrants, lovely new skort though…). 1-1 at half time after a great goal from Kareen and some great play up the pitch. We felt strong 2nd half but were defeated by lack of subs, wind, rain and all the other excuses despite a brilliant (obviously) 2nd goal from me.

MoM to Harriet Barber for being everywhere when we needed her!

Men’s 2s

Men’s faced Maldon 1s today. With Maldon currently propping up the league in last place and Forest riding high, it could have been billed as a David and Goliath clash. However no such luck for Maldon as Goliath stepped up to the plate and doled out an absolute drubbing!

Goals from Tom Lowe (x2), Imran Arshad (x2), Ben Norton, Kristis Bubnelis, & Jonathan Jones saw us stick a solid seven in the onion bag, with only one in reply from Maldon (from the only short corner they had). While 14 goals in two weeks has thrown the top scorer leader board into overdrive it’s secured us near the top of the league and is surely a sign of good things yet to come (Clacton away I hear you cry…)!

An availability calamity on the part of Tim Boxall saw him scoop POP, and a simply magnificent, nay glorious performance saw myself step up to collect MOM this week!

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#‎TomsLegacy‬!
‪#‎ClactonRoadTripImminent‬!
‪#‎OneTeamOneDream!‬
‪#‎BoxallOutOHaraMatchReportIn‬!

Ladies 3s

OK I know this is late. ..We went out valiantly at home to Chelmsford with only 10. Kept the score to 1-2 at half time. Battled well and had some good play. Defence fought incredibly hard against a young and relentless Chelmsford. It wasn’t easy for them but they eventually won 1-4 with a couple of their goals from short corners. The votes reflect the hard, hard, work in defence with equal nominations for Sinead and Kim but Sarah Todd won MOM for her superb return to the field only 3 weeks after having a baby and rescuing us from a bigger defeat. Amber goal scorer. Huge thanks to Rosemary GK, Mel and Katie from the 4’s for your brilliant efforts and for ensuring our game went ahead. No POP.

Men’s 3s

Away to Romford turned into a 9 goal thriller!!

Amazing triangles!!

Quick passing!!

Effective aerials!!

Change of pace!!

Winning the ball!!

And dynamic runs!!

Under pressure right from the start. Romford looked so good we knew we were in trouble. Not long into the first half after already making many saves, a Romford attack resulted in a goal from a volley right in front of the keeper.

Now 1-0 down, we needed to pull ourselves together before this got embarrassing. This is where it gets a bit hazy. Forest got going, Romford kept coming and I’m glad I took my blood pressure tablets this morning. We pulled one back to make it 1-1, but shortly after Romford were up again, 2-1!

Romford then imploded, appealed more than a crown court and hosted a TV show called Take Me Out! This boosted us more and made it 2-2 by half time!

Second Half we came out fighting not allowing Romford to take the upper hand. Great battling and determination saw us lead 2-3 then 2-4 and amazingly 2-5. This is where Romford’s comeback began. Nate was taken down again (there seems to be a connection with him being carried of the pitch after he does his aeroplane goal celebration). Romford pulled 2 goals back to make a squeaky bum finish to the game. Both keepers kept both teams from scoring double figures but the game ended with a 4-5 win to the men’s 3’s!

Big thankyou to Gary Joy for stepping in at the last minute to umpire.

Scorers: Tim S (3), Nate (2)

We didn’t get to vote today so I’ll make an executive decision and give……

MOM: Tim (for the hat-trick)!

POP: Nate (hat-trick avoidance and dodgy aeroplane celebration again)!

Ladies 4s

Well, let’s get this out of the way – we lost 13-0 to Wapping away at Lee Valley. It was always going to be a tough game – Wapping are undefeated at the top of the league, having scored 41 goals and conceded 2. Wapping were undeniably the better team, with swift passing and some beautiful goals, but that does not diminish what we achieved today. We played well together, looked for the passes and had some great breaks. Everyone was enthusiastic, motivated and really fought hard for the entire game, which is all you can ask. If this is how we play now, I can’t wait for the rest of the season!

Also, I had “Do it like a dude” by Jessie J stuck in my head for the entire game. I’m not saying that’s why we lost; I’m just saying it didn’t help!

MOM: It was tied this week, which reflects the game – Heidrun and Alex for some wonderful and tireless defensive work and Michelle for her perpetual brilliance in goal!

Men’s 4s

Saturday we had a 3.30pm date at The National Hockey Stadium v Saffron Walden 5s, looking to get the result our hockey has deserved over recent weeks but not been forthcoming.

Because of the personnel we had available, and the welcome return from his nuptials and honeymoon, Travis Hodges, we reverted to a 3-2-3-2 formation.

We started a little tentatively, but were soon into our stride, playing the fluid, pass and move hockey we had been playing in previous weeks, and creating chances.

After a couple of poor finishes and a couple of outstanding saves from the young Walden Keeper, we finally got our goal.

1-0 Forest, this really built our confidence and we really started to play with a real swagger, which showed in second goal, with some superb build up play, and real unselfish play in the D, to set up a tap in 2-0.

Thus soon become 3 and 4, and 4-0 is how we arrived at HT.

2nd half our aim was not to be complacent add to our goal tally, and keep a clean sheet unfortunately, we managed 1 out of 3….That was to add a 5th goal, and what a fantastic goal it was.

After playing our way out from the back, the ball was played into Jon Sidwell on halfway, who with a great touch and turn was away down the right, with electric pace drove into the D and finished with aplomb, IMO, the 4s goal of the season thus far.

We still created chances, and the young keeper pulled off some more cracking stops.

Unfortunately after putting so much work into the first 50 minutes we tired, and conceded 2 late goals, which was a tad unfortunate but we got what we set out to achieve, to get that winning feeling back. 5-2 FT score.

Away at Harlow next week, the League Leaders, will be a real challenge, but have so much faith in my teams ability, to meet the challenge head on.

Scorers:

Oliver Loessl

Travis Hodges

Nadeem Ahmed

Frank Dijkstra

Jon Sidwell

MOTM: Jon Sidwell- Great energy, work rate, ball distribution and not least a cracking individual goal.

Ladies 5s

Ladies 5s took on Chelmsford Ladies 6’s at home today. The score did not reflect the effort put in and is a huge improvement on the score from the last game we played. We lost 0-4. Everyone played so well, did their best and really pushed themselves. Be proud girls!

Men’s 5s

The 5’s made the short trip to Ashton playing fields for a match against Crostyx hoping to maintain their unbeaten run!

Crostyx were a very youth team fall of running and it took some time for the 5’s to get going, with a lot of unforced errors throughout the first half. The Men’s 5’s opened the scoring though Amir Sultan and it wasn’t very long before Josh Field grabbed a second with his reverse stick after a well worked short corner!

The second half was a lot better, but still too many unforced errors for the captain’s liking (he made a few himself) which invited pressure!

Josh Field manged to grab himself a couple more goals to complete his hat-trick (one was another reverse hit). Before Amir Sultan completed the scoring with his second goal of the game!

So the 5’s maintain their unbeaten run with this 5-0 Victory!