Ladies 1s

Great result for L1s beating top of the league Sudbury 1-0! Huge team effort but special mentions to Mog for some amazing saves and Sophie for doing a sterling job man marking the oppo’s key player. Also it may have been a pea-roller but I’ll take that goal! Well done team!

Oh and I don’t know MoM and DoD?!- Clean sweep for tent dwelling, pizza loving Sophie.

Men’s 1s

Waltham Forest travelled to Long Sutton, looking to maintain their unbeaten run on the road this season. Forest passed the ball magnificently in the first ten minutes leading to Lloyd and Jacko coming close to scoring. Eventually Forest’s persistence paid off, with Liam Radley evading a sequence of tackles and slot-ting the ball into the bottom corner.

After Forest’s initial period of dominance, Long Sutton can back into the game with their unmistakably burly target man slamming home a powerful reverse stick shot.
Forest took the lead a second time through Captain Arkle steaming through the middle and squeezing a shot under the logged keeper. However as the second half grew in the game opened up and Long Sutton scored two goals in quick succession to put Forest on the brink of a first away defeat.

Forest showed great resilience and fight in the last ten minutes, with a well worked team goal scored by Evans. The game ended 3-3, with Forest disappointed to have not snatched a win in the dying moments of the game.

MoM – Liam for a nice goal and assist.

PoP – Felix for arriving at the game hungover, and being precariously placed in a car with captain and coach.

Ladies 2s

2-0 home win for Ladies 2s vs Old Southendian. Brilliant team effort with some fantastic calling & passing (who needs subs? We don’t..), 1-0 up at half time after a smashing short hit from Emma Jane.

We then pushed hard and got a 2nd from Kareen and held on for the win despite going down to 10 for a few minutes with an injured Rachel Ellis. MOM to Dudzai for her mean stops & DOD to Elaine McKenna for not playing (their decision, not mine). A proud captain – even Ray Russo mentioned it was the best he’d seen us play. Praise indeed.

Men’s 2s

On a miserable day in Braintree, it wasn’t just the weather that dampened the flames of the Phoenix.

It rained goals thanks to a hat trick from Imran Arshad, a 2 inch tap in from Ed Bear Stubbing and the pick of the lot from Ben Norton. 5-1 final score.

The man of the match vote was the most hotly contested of the season with almost all votes going to Ben and Immy. Ben pinched it in the end though. However, given this isn’t a democracy, I guess I should really be man of the match, right lads?

POP was also hard fought, with a knitwear clad, my-day-ruining, stripper loving, dodgy passing Matt O’Hara just getting the nod ahead of Clarkey.

To Clacton we go!

Ladies 3s

We played away with 11 players this week…Hurrah!! However within 5 mins we were 10. A nasty hit caught Kim above the eye. She bravely stayed pitch side looked after by our fabulous impromptu sub Michelle Twitchett. We battled on with 10 and conceded only one goal by half time.

Michelle came on 2nd half. Well done for coming dressed in a white top!!!! It was a heavily defensive game. Upminster were strong, organised, quick to pass, and kept play very much in our half throughout the game. Our defence were steadfast and despite their relentless attack Upminster’s goals were not easy.

We had a couple of breaks and shots on goal which weren’t to be. This is a tricky season for the 3’s who are still working hard to find consistency and ultimately a regular bunch of players. Thanks again to the 4’s for playing up and ensuring we got to play. MOM Roisin. Despite our loss lots to be proud of.
Come on the 3’s, our time must come.

Men’s 3s

Unfortunately due to some sad news from one of our new players this season.
We will not be writing a match report.
Our thoughts go out to him and his family.

Ladies 4s

Waltham Forest Ladies 4s welcomed Redbridge and Ilford Ladies 3s to the Academy in horrible drizzle at 11.30 this morning. Redbridge went out with 11 on-field players and no goalie or kicking back. It took us a few minutes into the first half to find ourselves and Redbridge scored an early goal. We were playing well, although we weren’t as well gelled as usual and several Redbridge players had some powerful (and sometimes dangerous) swings. The first half continued much in this vein and, despite some breaks and chances from our side, the score at half time was 4-0.

At half time, we decided to play a more defensive game than usual and move some players around. Despite another early goal from Redbridge, play felt much better, with some clever passes and many more chances to push up. Redbridge made excellent use of their extra player outfield – shooting was definitely a challenge with up to six of their players in our D at times. However, I managed to finish a lovely cross from Goodness, putting the score to 5-1. Our best efforts were no competition for their pitch-length hits, though, and the game ended on 7-1 to Redbridge. We could have been quicker to the ball on occasion and could definitely have capitalised on our chances more often, but we played a good game and should still be proud of ourselves.

MOM: Sharnie for some wonderful long runs and some one-handed Pani specials.

Ladies 5s

With only 9 players, Ladies 5’s travelled to Upminster this morning. We played a good game and fought hard against our opposition (who had a full squad with 2 subs). We did so well in the first half and we were only 0-4 down by half time, in the second half we came back even stronger but Upminster managed to squeeze in one more goal to make the final score 0-5.

I lost count of the amount of short corners we had to defend, they seemed to be endless, but we defended them well and stopped them from scoring through most of them. We got into their D at least once, with Jacqui nearly scoring her and our first goal of the season. Very proud of all of you. Sian did fantastic in goal, Pearl was solid in defence as were Claire and Tracey, a poorly Maria did great on the left with Pauline and Julie owning the midfield and Jacqui, well, what can I say, she was owning the pitch!

Men’s 5s

The Men’s 5s continued their unbeaten run with another draw against Chelmsford.

The 5’s controlled the first half and took the lead though Josh Field from a short corner on the stroke of half time.

The second started in the same way, but some sloppy play from the 5’s earnt Chelmsford a short corner from which there equalised.

The Men’s 5’s did regain the lead again though Ammir Sultan after a great passing move. The 5’s continued to push for a third, but once again some sloppy play let Chelmsford in for there second equaliser.

And that’s how it finished. Once again a lot of effort by all, just need to cut out the unforced errors.
On the positive still undefeated

Otters

With a late injury withdrawal the Otters travelled to take on Southend with only 10 players. A positive start was undone when we fell behind midway through the first half having failed to clear a short corner. Man of the Match Ben Frith-Salem then finished a mazy run with a precise finish to level. Then with the last play of the first half Ben got a shot in from a short corner that was going comfortably wide till a Southend foot diverted it into the goal.

We braced ourselves for an onslaught in the second half as the rain worsened and we suspected Southend would be stung into action, with the benefit of the extra man, substitutes and the slope. But, in a great team effort, with Joao winning everything in front of the back two we controlled the game from thereon and Southend were limited to just one chance while we could have increased our lead, but settled for a 2-1 win, our first “real” points of the season.

Mixed

We turned up to Lee Valley on a very blustery day to play an always strong East London team.

East London took the lead three times, each time us pegging them back. Then towards the end they managed to score a couple more to which we had no reply. Everyone played an absolute blinder today. A real team effort!

Huge thanks to those who came along last minute to make up numbers and to see Matt O’Hara sprint (he really gets going with the wind behind him!) and to Gary Joy for umpiring! Final score 5-3 to East London.

Scorers Phillipa, Nati and Shane.

Men’s Trophy 2015/16- Round 2

Forest travelled to Felixstowe for a second away match in one weekend, this was for round two of the cup. The 4 pint limit had been broke by everyone, yet this didn’t get in the way of forest starting the game very brightly.

A few attacks in the opening 5 minutes led to a short corner after Liam Radley had dribbled his way through. Mal scored our first drag flick of the season. Bottom right of the keeper.
Forest then kept up the high tempo which Felixstowe could not deal with. This led to a host of chances, yet Radley and Evans couldn’t find each other which would have led to tap in’s.

With the score line only 1-0 at half time, forest knew that they would still have a game on their hands and that they would need to put chances away or risk going out of the cup.

As the second half started Felixstowe started to play hockey. Yet it was still forest who created chance after chance. Combination of good goal keeping and bad/ unlucky finishing keeping it at 1-0.
At one point Felixstowe went down to 9 players yet forest still couldn’t score.
With 10 minutes to go Lloyd finally put the ball in the goal at the third attempt after a goal mouth scramble.
He then got his second two minutes later reacting to a rebound off the goalkeeper.

The game ended 3-0 and forest progress to the next round. Despite CAPTAIN Arkle’s attempt of sabo-taging our cup run.
Next round we have Blackheath at home 7th Feb.

Pop – probably Felix but I’m giving it to Arkle for making out he had awarded the game to Felix-stowe.

MOM- Lloyd got two goals even though he said they were goals you just don’t want to take credit for.