That slippery eel the clean sweep looked possible for a short while on Saturday with some great battling results coming in. Unfortunately the eel wriggled off the hook so we’ll have to fish another day…Here’s the results
Robson Green’s extreme fishing (winning)… L1s L2s M2s M3s L3s M4s
Captain Ahab’s honourable draws… L5s (game off)
Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’s curse… M1s L4s M5s O40s
Talk of who landed what as well as the ones that got away can be found here. Special mention in the Angling Times goes to the Over 40s for no one dying in their first ever match.
Ladies 1s
The Ladies Ones made the early morning trip to a very sunny Kent to play Sevenoaks for the second time this season. Keen to get back to winning ways, with a new playing formation and several hockey related Christmas presents having their first outing, Forest dominated the game from the off.
After several attempts, Forest got a well deserved goal from Lucy Butcher. Continuing to control the game with some excellent play across the pitch, well practised presses, majestic saves from Mog, and our new favourite shape – triangles, the ladies started applying the pressure.
More goals soon came in from Katherine Abbie, a second from Lucy Butcher, Kate Murphy, Am Perry and Lucie Fish. A final score of 6-0 puts the Ladies Onesies right back to winning ways for 2014.
Well done all for a great team effort!
MOM goes to Kate for some brilliant attacking play. DOD jointly to Jen (for stacking it) and Fran (for leaving to get a tan).
Ladies 2s
A 7-1 win for the ladies 2s! A fantastic start to the second half of the season. If we can keep our cool and confidence, then expect to see more score lines like this one. Well done ladies!
Ladies 3s
Ladies 3s continued their winning streak with a 6-1 win against Colne! An excellent win to boost our climb up the table!
Men’s 1s
The Mens 1s got the second half of the season underway against joint top of the table Felixstowe and with some key players missing it was always going to be a tough task.
Forest dominated the opening exchanges but created very little in terms of goal scoring chances. The visitors took the lead when Chris Tanswell, passing the ball across the back, only succeeded in finding the centre forward who easily beat the advancing Jake Ledbrook in goal on his reverse stick. Forest heads seem to drop after that and Felixstowe took control as Liam Radley saw yellow for an unnecessary kick at an opponent. The visitors were winning a number of short corners with Chris Brown clearing 3 off the line. The home side held out until just before half time when another short corner was half stopped by Ed Stubbing on the post but the ball somehow managed to roll across the line.
There were some frank discussions at half-time with Coach and Captain telling the team the effort and attitude were not good enough. Tactical changes were also made with Tanswell moving out to the right hand side of the back three and new boy Chad moving into the middle. Forest started brighter in the second half, moving the ball around well and were back in the match when Nico Kurt scored a drag flick low into the bottom corner. The joy was short lived as Felixstowe scored their third from another short corner; the initial shot being saved by Ledbrook but the rebound found the forward who made no mistake from a couple of yards out. Again Forest came back and when Liam Radley reduced the deficit to one belief flooded through the team. Forest should have had a penalty flick when Ed Jackson beat the last defender only to be rugby tackled as he was about to shoot but the umpired inexplicably waved play-on. Indiscipline then hindered their chances as first Rich Lowe and the Tanswell were given yellow cards. The visitors scored their third short corner of the day when a soft shot found its way past Ledbrook, who will have been disappointed with his efforts. A scrappy goal from Jackson gave Forest hope with two minutes remaining but it was not to be and the final whistle meant a 4-3 loss.
Normally a close defeat against top of the table wouldn’t be too bad but Forest have a collection of players who are better than their current performances suggest. With over half the season gone, it is a tale of what could have been for this collection of talented players and a collective effort is required to make the most of the final part of the campaign.
Men’s 2s
Upminster weren’t very good, so to even things up a bit and to give ourselves more of a challenge, we let them have a 3-1 half time lead and went down to ten men for a while.
We also didn’t bother scoring from about 18 short corners.
Still won 4-3 though.
Well done lads – we had to dig in a bit more than we’d thought this week, but winning at all costs is what leads to promotion.
Well done to Imran Arshad, Jonathan Jones and Waz for the goals.
Thanks James Price, Natty and Gav for helping us out today.
Men’s 3s
A tough well battled game against Brentwood today!
End to end hockey, we scored first from a well taken short corner scored by Paul Matthews. Brentwood won a short corner shortly afterwards and with an unfortunate deflection (by me) from a Brentwood strike, the ball slipped in to make it 1-1. Unable to remember the rest of the match properly! I shall intend to guess so please correct if I’m wrong. I think we scored (don’t know how) before half time to make it 2-1 (scorer unknown). I’m guessing we went into half time leading.
After a few team moans and winges during the half time talk we came out and let in a goal.
Now 2-2 we started to take control of the second half. Brentwood were unable to keep their mouths shut after plenty of warnings from the umpires which resulted in them getting 4 yellow cards during the game. A superb goal smashed in by Abhi from a tight angle took us to 3-2 up. With 10 minutes to go, Brentwood subbed their keeper off to get 11 outfield players on. This went pear shaped when they got 2 players sent off 5 minutes later. With plenty of stick tackles we had to defend many short corners one after the other. Forest 3’s had another chance to score with a great pass from right midfield to Tim on the left wing but Tim was unable to control the ball in the D with an open goal and knocked it off the end of the pitch.
The game ended with a forest 3’s win 3-2.
POP = Tim Slack for missing an open goal chance.
MOM = James for plenty of saves keeping us in the game
Men’s 4s
Today the Men’s 4s travelled to Saffron Walden, still smarting from our defeat, in the final game before the Festive Break. It had been a long month, of waiting to put that wrong, right.
But it wasn’t going to be easy with 6 regular players missing for various reasons.
The first half of the game, looked like both teams, hadn’t played hockey for a month or so, although, Walden were more fluid in their passing, they created the better opportunities, and we just couldn’t get into the game at all. Giving the ball away, not tracking runners, in fact looking very much like a team who hadn’t played together before,(which we were) and still gad out pipe and slippers on, eating our Christmas Pudding…
Just at the end of the 1st half, Walden got what they deserved on the balance of play, and took a 1-0 lead, which they held onto until HT.
Our HT chat was, just about getting the basics right, and moving the ball much quicker.
Just after the break we concede again, 2-0 Walden, mountain to climb.
Now came the key to this game, from the PB after the goal, we went straight up the other end, a super ball into the D, from Ash Fisher, expertly deflected in by Frank, 2-1 and at last a foothold in the game.
We now started to play a little, a for the next 10-15 minutes we dominated the game in terms of possession and creating chances, eventually our pressure paid off, with Ash, neatly lifting the ball over the GK. 2-2…
20 minutes to go, the game was there to be won, for both teams.
So for the next 15 mins it was like a basketball game, you attack we attack, both team having opportunities to win it, Frank had a glorious chance one on one with the keeper and scuffed badly.but about 5 minutes later, received the ball at the Top of the D, at a very tight angle, and absolutely launched a rocket into the roof of the Walden goal, 3-2 Forest, with about 5 minutes left.
As normally happens, we started to defend to deep and were subjected to a wave of attacks, but we defended doggedly, to hang onto our lead, which we did, as we let out a roar of jubilation and relief as the final whistle blew.
A magnificent 3-2 win, from being 2-0 down, we showed some real spirit, desire and commitment today, and after a month finally, got the bitter taste of that last defeat, out of mouth.
A special mention for young Josh who, normally plays 5s and was not confident he should be playing 4s, well he was absolutely outstanding today, in every aspect of his game, and deservedly, got the MOTM.
Thanks to all who played today, fantastic effort by all of you, in what could turn out to be a defining win at the end of the season.
Men’s 5s
By a remarkable run of rearranged fixtures the 5s played only their second home game of the season, the first since the opening day of the season, 21st September.
Yet within a minute any feel-good factor had disappeared as we were already behind to an East London 7 side which cut through us with a speed and skill that was unrecognisable from the team we had played against earlier in the season.
We were able to create a few short periods of pressure, and during one of these scored our only goal, a penalty stroke converted by Scott, but it was a long afternoon against a powerful and aggressive side and we trailed 5-1 at the break. Joshua Field in midfield and Owen at the back battled particularly well, and commitment was excellent throughout the side as we only conceded a further 2 second half goals to keep the score within the realms of respectability.
Over 40s / Ancient Foresters
Today 11 of the clubs senior players, created a little piece of club history, as WFHC for the first time, fielded a Veterans Team, in The EHB Now Pensions, O40s Masters Trophy.
We were drawn away to Old Southendian’s, who also fielded players from Southend HC.
As far as the game went, the oppo, were very, very good, they moved the ball very fluidly, and were extremely skillful.
Within 15 minutes we were 4-0 down, but to our players credit, they never stopped working and trying to play our hockey. And although we conceded again, and were 5-0 down, just before HT, our desire commitment and work rate, were rewarded as with good pressure we and a good finish from Clive Glen it was 5-1 at HT.
The story was very similar 2nd half the difference being they scored 6 and we scored 3, although Mark Fisher must have forgotten we changed ends at HT, as he contributed to their final total with 2 OGs.
The final score was 11-4, against a team with a squad of 16, we had bare 11.
I was an extremely proud Captain today, as the players were magnificent, it would have been easy to throw the towel in, but there was never any danger of that happening.
To be fair at times we played some very good hockey, that was certainly a match for the oppo.
So the clubs first adventure into Masters Hockey, didn’t go as planned, but the spirit and heart the guys showed in the face of adversity was admirable.
A massive thank you all of you who gave up your Sunday and played today.
Goalscorers
Clive (2), Nadeem, Frank
POP
Mark OG Fisher
Forest Reunion Match
Club stalwart Majid Azam donned his finest Waltham Forest tracksuit and led out a team of former club members against a Steve Hare Select XI. Expectations were low, but somehow a very even contest emerged with some good goals scored in an end to end match. The score was 3-3 with a couple of minutes on the clock when Rocky gave away a p flick. There was still time for Majid to almost get an equalizer but he couldn’t reach the cross.
MoMs Majid, Matt Tanswell
PoPs Majid, James Price
