Ladies 1s

L1s stepped out against Brentwood who are one place above us in third. I’m not entirely sure what happened but have been reliably informed by Captain on the day Mog that it yoyo’d (if that’s a word):

0-1

1-1

2-1

2-2

2-3

2-4

3-4

So we lost but we dug deep and kept battling back with two goals from Philippa Leguen De Lacroix and one from Fish.

MoM Kat for stellar defending and nearly getting a nosebleed with some mega runs up the pitch.

DoD Lucie Fish for DoD vest avoidance (but as she wasn’t there also a mention for Phil in second place!).

Ladies 2s

Ladies 2s played Colchester 3s this afternoon and WE WON!!!

Some of the best hockey we’ve played in weeks and a much deserved 2-1 victory!

MOM to Izzy for her phenomenal running and POP for Rachel Ellis for her pre-second half push back dance moves.

Ladies 3s

Ladies 3s travelled to Chelmsford to take on a tiny green army. Tiny in stature I should add, certainly not tiny in skill or speed. We worked hard as a team and defended incredibly well, on a few occasions breaking into the oppositions D with some good attacks but the little people were always there to clear the ball. The first half ended 1-0 to Chelmsford.

We went out determined in the second half but our lack of subs and their incessant running began to get the better of us. We continued to defend well but the army continued to press on us and we seemed to struggle to get the ball out of our half. With cries from the captain of ‘they’re everywhere’, and some interesting umpiring, the game eventually ended 4-0 to Chelmsford. Superb effort from everyone as always and we continue to work hard and be amazingly positive. Well done everyone.

MOM was given to me! Thanks guys! And we don’t do POP but this week we do and it’s going to Charlotte Inman for cycling to Chelsmford!! That’s a serious warm up!!

Ladies 4s

Ladies 4’s played at home today against Wapping.

Gonna keep it short & sweet. We knew it was going to be one of the hardest games and it was! Our defence & I were kept very busy. We kept our spirits high & fought hard to the end.

A GOOD TEAM EFFORT but we were defeated 10-0

MOM went to Mel. (Well deserved).

Thank you

Men’s 1s

After a 2 hour journey the M1s produced another fine performance to run out 3-1 winner against 4th placed Spalding. With 2 goals from Jacko and one from Liam. Jacko scored the goal of the season. Let me run you through it. Drewey sent the ball the length of the pitch in the air, Jacko ran onto it picked it up after one bounce, keeping it in the air, then flicked it up and over the on rushing keeper, running around and picking it up the other side and tapping it in. He then threw his stick away and ran into the corner to celebrate on his own. Even the large opposition crowd appreciated the world class goal.

Promotion is now in the teams hands as they sit in 3rd just 2 points off second with 2 games in hand. The upcoming weekend is huge with a double header against 2 of the bottom sides, Long Sutton on Saturday followed by Felixstowe on Sunday….come and watch. We would appreciate your support

Men’s 2s

Maldon is so miserable, cold and windy, apparently due to its proximity to an estuary. Rumour has it that it’s actually a nice place for a cappuccino and a sea view, but you wouldn’t have thought it from their dank changing rooms. I reckon Clarkey needs to ‘deal with’ their council again to get some upgrades.

We drew 1-1 after a pretty abject performance, in which we relentlessly failed to string together more than three passes. Great work Tom Lowe scoring with a duff flick in the last minute so that we at least went home with a point.

Yogi Patel was man of the match, chosen totally undemocratically by me. Lots of great saves meant we didn’t get beaten, and he nearly kept their goal out.

Ed Bear Stubbing was POP for being so offensive on whatsapp that he actually got kicked out of the group. Imran Arshad and Chris Tanswell came close for being a couple of little bitches during the game.

Men’s 3s

Looking for inspiration at the Olympic venue 14 man Forest 3’s took on 10 man Romford 1’s. We played like Ancient Olympians naked of skill and lost 2-4. 0-3 down after the first 15 minutes and even played against 9 men for 2 minutes of the game.

Men’s 4s

On Saturday we travelled to Saffron Walden, looking for the 3 points that would mathematically secure our status in Division 6SE. Without being at our fluid best, and a country mile away from the levels we have reached in recent weeks, we achieved what we set out to do, with a 5-1 win. Although it looks like a comfortable win, it certainly was far from that, the opposition made us earn it. So seasons objective achieved with 3 games to play, league status secured.

It’s been a very tight division this season, so much so, that Saturday’s win has lifted us to the dizzy heights of 4th place in the league. It would be a fantastic achievement for us to hang onto that position, and absolutely no reason we can’t. So 3 games to go, starting with a tough test against newly crowned Div 6SE champions Harlow 1s.

I think we are certainly relishing this weekend’s challenge.

Goal Scorers: Frank Dijkstra (3), Alex Heath, Horace Keating

MOTM: Ben Rai Green

Solid defensive performance, wonderful reading of the play and super distribution.

Men’s 5s

The 5’s welcomed Old Southendian to the academy hoping to maintain their push for promotion.

The 5’s started brightly and took the lead after George Fernandez set up Benjamin Frith-Salem to open the scoring. As the 5’s began to dominate the game Josh Field doubled the lead with a goal from a short corner. Ben soon got his second of the game after a fine sweeping move. Mick Lane finished the scoring in the first half after he got a touch onto a goal bound shot from Eebbaa Elfneh. The 5’s going in 4-0 as half time.

The second half went much the same as the first. Ben got his hat-trick after a fine team move. It was then over to Josh to grab his second of the game after a reverse sweep from Rob Humphrey came back off the cross bar for him to push home. Ben then had his 4th of the game after some fine play out of the defence by Owen Doody. Zain Rashid then got himself onto the score sheet after George Fernandez found him free in the D. Ben finished off scoring make it 5 goals for him and a 9(nine) nil win for the 5’s.

Result 9-0

MOM George Fernandez, great wing play.

‪#‎3cupfinalsleft

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#‎cleansheetasgoodasgoalfordefenders‬

Otters

The Otters took on a strong Wapping side whose win took them top of the table, though in terms of possession and number of short corners won it was an even contest. After falling 2 goals down early we started asserting ourselves and, having pulled a goal back from Aamir, had chances to make it level approaching the break.

However we conceded a couple of soft goals just before half time and the second half saw a series of scrambled and strange Wapping goals – including one that would not have gone in had the goal been in the right position and another featuring some great footballing skills by the Wapping striker. It finished a very unreflective 9-1, with Aamir, providing an outlet and constant threat up front, and Manu, resolute and skilful in defence joint Man of the Match.

Mixed

Forest v City Slickers (mixed)

We turned up with a strong team today. Sir Ed deciding to make an outing, dusting off his mixed hockey stick and Philippa upfront too. Unfortunately, they turned up with their full strength team so it was always going to be an uphill battle…

We gave it our best but they were just that little bit too slick. We (well, me) generously allowed them to play with an 11th man as they didn’t turn up with enough ladies. This proved to be our undoing and no matter how hard we worked we just couldn’t stop them. We were 2-0 down at half time and poor Cat D had already had to resort to heading one off the line (we wish her a speedy recovery via Whipps Cross!). In the second half we pulled our socks up and gave it our all. Everyone worked ridiculously hard, especially the girls (as usual) and we made some fine chances but just couldn’t get the goal all our hard work deserved. As we ran out of gas they got a couple of late extra goals, final score 4-0.

But I would like to add a genuine heartfelt thank you to all who played by far our most difficult game of the season. Added extras were a sober Matt O’Hara with the strength of 10 tigers, Joe Russo finding his speed and being absolutely blistering all over the pitch, Ed Bear Stubbing for his yellow card (more than a little harsh I felt but hey…) and Cat D driving all the way from Ramsgate to bolster the team and getting 20 minutes of hockey and a trip to the hospital. Vintage Forest throughout.