Ladies 1s
Indoor
L1s heading back from Norwich after a last match 4-0 victory to save ourselves from relegation! We lost 2, won 1 yesterday. Lost 1, won 1 today. Top scorer Lucy Butcher who is waiting for her prize from Jenny Evans.
Thanks to Mog for arranging and captaining, team manager Ronnie Mcquilkin aka Ravioli and our supporters who cheered us on today.
Hooray for the super heroes!
Men’s 1s
Match Postponed
Ladies 2s
L2s were at home to Basildon 2s this morning and, despite our greatest efforts, lost 5-0.
Basildon were a tight knit team and seemed to be on us from the very start, causing us to play a somewhat defensive game. We finished the first half 2-0 down. Phil gave us a great half time pep talk, however this didn’t really translate to our play in the second half, in which we conceded a further 3 goals.
Good effort though guys, onwards and upwards to next week’s game against Basildon’s 3s!
POP went to both Helen (for getting a puncture on her way) and to Michelle (for being late and sending me into a flap!). MOM went to me (yay). Thanks again Phil for your help today!
Men’s 2s
What a disappointment, 4-3 defeat against Saffron Walden. They were good, but we played poorly.
Well done Ed Bear Stubbing Jonathan Jones for goals. I can’t remember who got the third – maybe Imran Arshad?? (Sorry!)
Let’s pick it up for next week to ensure we’re in the top two for Christmas.,
MOM was Rob Martin for special counting skills. POP with 47 votes was Tom Lowe.
Ladies 3s
Rocky Balboa once said, ‘Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up’.
True that. Ladies 3s, defeated on the pitch (9-0 Vs Havering), but not in spirit!,
Men’s 3s
The Men’s 3s faced Crostyx away today just 10 minutes down the road from the academy. Today’s POP was decided even before the game had begun due to Capitan Matthews deciding that the majority of the team should arrive an hour and a half before push back.
The game started at a quick pace with Crostyx taking an early lead. I don’t remember much about our first goal but apparently Tim Slack provided a great reverse stick assist to myself, and I somehow with my back to goal scored. This was then followed by a second from our first short corner of the game, Glen with the tap in on the line ensuring that Nathanael couldn’t bring out the aeroplane, 2-1 at halftime.,
The second half involved a lot of pressure from Crostyx pushing for equaliser. Against the run of play forest countered down the left with Tim driving the ball into the d and scoring. Shortly after Gedas got a yellow, but we defended well and kept the score line at 3-1 while he was off. Unfortunately this didn’t last as Crostyx grabbed two goals to finish the game 3-3.
MOM – Matt for having a good game
POP – Paul
Ladies 4s
No Game
Men’s 4s
We travelled the short distance, to Old Loughts to play their Academy.
Severely depleted by injuries to Jon Sidwell and Travis Hodges with Oliver Loessl our Sub also carrying an injury, we knew it was going to be a tough day at the office.
Disappointingly, that’s exactly how it worked out.
After taking an early lead, after not being in the game, with our fox in the box Martin Hands-Clarke somehow scrambling the ball over the line, to give us a 1-0 lead which we held until HT.
2nd half we conceded two very poor goals not reacting to ball that rebounded off the post and another that rebounded off the keeper.
We lost 2-1, and were way short of our fluid best, far too many basic errors and gave away possession in poor areas of the field.
It was disappointing on my than the poor performance level, which I vented about post game, and for now that’s where it stays.
Not the result we were hoping for going into the festive break.
But on the positive side our hockey for the best part of the season, has been superb, if not always ending up with the result we deserve.
Its up to us to carry that on, into the new year get the points required, to meet the seasons goal, which is, consolidate our position in the league, anything we achieve above and beyond that is a bonus..
Ten games to play guys, lets leave it all out there on the field of play until the end of the 2015/16 season, and see where it takes us.
Goal scorer, Martin
MOTM Gavin Gynn who made a string of super saves, one in particular, somehow clawing the ball out when the other 21 players on the pitch, thought goal.
Just remains for me to thank you all for your support and to wish yourselves and your families a, Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year
See you all in 2016.
Ladies 5s
After some (VERY) late changes to availability and positions which took us from 15 players down to 11, Ladies 5s played East London Ladies 7s. We started fantastically with Sharmeen scoring a great goal set up by Jacqui and Shagofa within in the first few minutes of the game (Ladies 5s first goal of the season !!!). East London soon scored making it 1-1 and by the full time whistle they had secured themselves a further 3 (unskilful and lucky) goals. Final score Forest 1- 4 East London.
Well done today and a huge well done to Sarah Jane Brown who won Lady of the match (with a majority vote) for some beautiful hits, strong passes, fab effort and some great tackles. Looking forward to the win in the next half of the season.
Men’s 5s
The men’s 5’s were at Lee Valley to face Wapping hoping to maintain their unbeaten start to the season. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as we lost 3-2.
The 5’s started very slowly and the team captain (Me) gave Wapping an early Christmas present when trying to run the ball out of defence and losing control,. The 5s soon found themselves 2 down after a miss hit shop trickled over the line.
The 5’s started to come into the game and pulls goal back after a great run and pass from Josh Rennie-Smith set up Gino. With the 5s playing most of the hockey and creating a number of chances, but it was Wapping who scored a third from a penalty flick. The first half ending 3-1 to Wapping.
The 5’s came out in the second half and put Wapping on the back foot and dominated the second half, managing to score a second from Aamir off a short corner.
The 5’s went looking for an equaliser but to no avail, the umpires did get into Christmas spirt in the second half handing green and yellow cards to Gino, Owen Doody and green to a Wapping player. As captain I am proud of the effort the whole team showed yesterday after going behind. Heads never went down and battled till the end and there efforts deserved a lot more.
If we take the effort we showed today into the rest of the season we will be pushing the teams around us all way until the end of season.
Report to follow
Otters
Pushed up to a big league 1pm time slot the Otters immediately brought a flavour of the lower League by giving Emran, who had come along to watch, an unexpected debut to bring us up to 11 players. The first half was very even against an experienced and physical Brentwood side, and we trailed only 1-0 at the interval, to a goal from a short corner.
But Brentwood became increasingly dominant as they made good use of their substitutes while we went down to 10 for the final 20 minutes. Adam held his own throughout against much bigger opponents, showing great poise on the ball, and Luke defended bravely as ever. In what became a matter of damage limitation we restricted our opponents somewhat, to a 0-5 final score.
