Ladies 1s

L1s stepped out for a breezy home game and survived an early scare to go up 2-0 at half time. Super goal from Philippa Leguen De Lacroix and a wonder loopy reverse shot from Lucy Butcher. However, Colchester continued to fight with several breaks drawing fine saves from Mog. They got one in but we finally managed a lovely team goal finished by Phil for her second. We didn’t play our best but won 3-1.

MoM Fish DoD Phil for trying to take out Faith with I’m not sure what it was but she’s claiming an ‘accidental pass back or shot’ (she’s not talking her way out of it very well!)

Final words go to Faith – when voting for Phil her reason was ‘crimes against passing’

Men’s 1s

Report to follow

Ladies 2s

Report to follow

Men’s 2s

The Men’s 2s made the short trip into deepest Essex, to play an Upminster side well versed in the darker arts of hockey. Forest created plenty of chances but decided to make it difficult for themselves, conceding some disappointing goals.

Final score 4-4, scorers Imran (2), Nate, and someone else I can’t remember, maybe Ben (he is forgettable, after all).

When it came to the all important POP, much was made of Kristis’ particularly impressive strop mid-way through the second half. Michael Powell (aka Chap) followed suit with a decent tantrum, and Yogi wasn’t far behind for allowing himself to be bullied by their centre forward. Ultimately, Boxall somehow got away with going skiing mid-season and Tom took the mantle of POP, mainly for being a terrible captain and ruining everyone’s day.

Davis clinched MOM with a solid performance in midfield.

I still don’t believe he played Aussie Prem, though.

Ladies 3s

The 3’s played away to Basildon this Saturday. Without the fabulous support of the 4’s we would have been a very depleted 3’s. It was a valiant effort by all and there was some fantastic movement and attacking play which unfortunately only resulted in some very near misses. The defence did a stirling job but unfortunately Basildon slid a shot into the near post.

MOM is jointly awarded to Goodness and Sharnie, but with an important shout out to Kiesha Dwyer who stepped up to provide a sub despite still recovering from a bump on head at training. 1-0. It could have been ours.

Well done girls. Was a good game.

Men’s 3s

Tough game today with no centre forwards as we hosted Phoenix 2’s at the academy. Many chances were made but not clinical enough to convert them, although the Phoenix defence needed to make few goal line clearances.

Unable to score from a short corner, the skipper stepped up his game with silky skills to twist his way past 3 players and slipped the ball past the keeper. A couple of squeaky bum moments towards the end of the game, with Gedas chopping down Phoenix trees and picking up a green card, and the team giving away too many short corners in the last five minutes.

“having said that” ‪#‎garyism‬ We won!

Well done to Ian, Horace and Rob for stepping up and playing superb.

Scorer: Paul M

POP: Gedas (Green card)

MOM: Alex and Rob H

Ladies 4s

This afternoon, the L4s hosted Havering 4s at home, in the moderate gales at the academy. With the crown of captaincy being bestowed upon me (whilst Emma Page was soaking in a hot tub in Wales), I was optimistic at the prospect of reporting on the end of the L4s losing streak.
Alas, it was not to be. L4s lost 2-1 to Havering.

With a lot of our players being pulled up, we went out with 12 players, including five L5s (welcome to the team ladies!) and were optimistic of an evenly matched game, with Havering only a couple of places above in the league. This is exactly what we got. In the words of the oppo’s umpire, “it could have gone either way”.

Havering opened the score line in the first half, and excitement peaked early on in the second half with Kwai’s cracking equaliser.
Following Havering’s second goal, we pushed on, but despite some excellent runs from Charlotte and Shagofa, and fabulous runs and tackles from Rameen and Shameen, led to several good shots on goal, which frustratingly we just couldn’t get over that line!

It really was a good game with some excellent hockey being played by all. Special mention to Claire, Catriona, Rameen, Shameen and Shafoga, for playing from the 5s. Rosemarie had some excellent saves and making sure Kwai stayed in the attacking D and Heidrun for channeling her inner Alex and being impenetrable at the top of the D.

Mini-MOM went to Charlotte (with only 5 of us voting she didn’t deserve a full title!).

Lets look ahead to victory on the road at Southend next week!

Men’s 4s

The Men’s 4s travelled to perennial foes Wapping, looking for a third win on the spin.
I really am lost for words (I know absolute shocker).
Problem being there’s so much I feel I want and need to say but unfortunately can’t……
The crux of the matter is the result, we got beat 2-1.
But that just doesn’t tell the whole story, much of which is negative!!!

So staying with the positives, and taking into account the result, we absolutely battered Wapping, in every statistic you could possibly imagine except the most important one.
We dominated possession, territory, total shots, shots on target, pass completion tackles made, etc, etc.
Our play again, as it has been for most of the season was exemplary, passing the ball from back to front, playing our way around the opposition, superb movement, great work rate, great desire and commitment.

There were two defining maters in the game, 1) Wapping had 3 shots, and scored two soft goals from short corners and were eminently defendable on our part
2) The Wapping GK had a worldie of a game he stopped everything, even a Penalty Flick we had. We had attack after attack, short after short chance after chance and he was equal to everything, except the one occasion we managed to breach his defences.

We went down 1-0 after about 15 minutes completely against the run of play. 1-0 was the HT score.
Early 2nd half we were 2-0 down, even more against the run of play.
We did get a goal from Alex Heath, to make it 2-1, but it was not to be.
That remained the final score, with the difference between the teams an unbelievable Goalkeeping performance, the likes of which I’d never seen before.
Yesterday was definitely a case of, in sport you don’t always get what you deserve.

A big thank you to Kieran Bush for helping us out yesterday, playing very well, and talking sense to me when it was most definitely required.
Also the same thanks goes to the rest of my players, for their sensible approach, their continued support, and the teaching to me of a little dignity.

Yesterday the 4s had a Wives and Girlfriends Day.
So the biggest thank you goes to all The WAGs who turned out to support their men, on a particularly cold day (understating it somewhat)
Thank you all, your support was much appreciated, just sorry we couldn’t provide you with the result your support deserved.
To my players onward and upward, let’s keep playing the men’s 4s way, and we will have a successful and winning end to the season…

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#‎ProudCaptain‬

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#‎InSoManyWays‬

Men’s 5s

The Men’s 5’s made the short trip to Thurrock. The 5’s started brightly and dominated the game from the start, taking the lead early on when Aamir Sultan scored from a short corner. The 5’s couldn’t turn the domination into more goal and we’re hit with a sucker punch on the stroke off half time, when Thurrock scored from there first short corner of the game and there first shot on goal, making 1-1 at half time.

Thurrock started the second half on the front foot, but the men’s 5’s defence held firm. The 5’s got themselves into the game and took the lead when Ben Firth-Salam scored the second from close range.

The 5’s continued to created chances with Aamir, Zain, Mick, Eebbaa and Ben all going close. A deserved third came after a sweeping move found Ben Firth-Salam at the top of the D the smash home.

The game finished 3-1 to the 5’s

Goal Scorers: Aamir Sultan, Ben Firth-Salam (2)

MOM Ben Firth-Salam

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#‎5cupfinalsleft‬