Victory can be sweet but defeat can be a bitter pill.
Covering themselves in honey and chocolate… M2s, M4s, L1s
Ordering the sweet and sour balls… M1s
Choking down the pills… M3s, L3s, L4s, L5s
Further details of who ate what below.
Ladies 1s
Waltham Forest Ladies 1st team took on Basildon at home this weekend looking to build on their current good run of results. Forest started very well with some great distribution of the ball round the pitch. The early quick passes paid off when man of the match Katherine Abbie found herself at the edge of the D and a well struck shot beat the keeper. Kate Murphy scored Forest’s second goal with a brilliant lifted ball from the top of the D that sailed over the perplexed Basildon goalie. Aware that Basildon were still dangerous on the break Forest had to remain focused and sealed victory with a well worked short corner routine, Lucy Butcher passing to Kate Murphy who swept the ball into the roof of the net. Forest travel to Kent next weekend to play Ashford.
Ladies 3s
Ladies 3s put a great fight but lost 2-3 to County Wanderers! We played some fantastic hockey and their umpire even told me he felt we had been robbed as we deserved the win! Crystal Shelley and Rachel Ellis kept up their scoring streaks and Kirsten Geekie got MOM and POP! Next week the battle continues!
Ladies 4s
Yes – we lost again, 1-6. Goal came from Mabel, it was her first game for us, so great start for you. Player of the match goes to Cat Cheshire Doherty, and thank you to all those who made up our team today.
Ladies 5s
Lost 6-0 to Witham. Ladies of the match were Kryssi, Ayesha and Jane Blackborow.
Men’s 1s
Forest hosted City of Peterborough 3’s this weekend, a side that they comfortably beat away from home earlier in the season. However, a poor first half saw Forest leave far too much space for the opposition between midfield and defence, with Peterborough’s counter attacking hockey proving an effective tactic. The only glimpse of decent hockey was a break from Liam Radley who found Chris Drewe open at the far post to make it 1-3 just before half time with the home side left scratching their heads.
In the second half Forest really had to push on but went 1-4 down early on before gradually pulling themselves back into the game. Phil Peacock found Liam at the far post for a tap in, before Ed Jackson made it 3-4. Then Nico Kurt got the equaliser from a penalty stroke with two minutes to go, as the game finished 4-4. Not the performance they wanted, but a spirited display from Forest against a team they really should have beaten. Next week is a long journey to Norfolk where they face Harleston – in a season of Jekyll and Hyde performances hopefully the right Forest team will show up.
Men’s 2s
A return for Yogi Patel and 3 tasty points away at witham.
Two goals from Marcus Webb, one of which was a spectacular chest-high volley and one from Alec Zetter.
We probably could’ve scored more, especially if I learned to finish from six inches out.
Edward Cheng and Guy Kuipers thoroughly stole my 30th birthday thunder with their far more interesting lives. Congratulations to them both.
I was rightly voted POP for my abysmal shooting and dodgy/amazing (depending on your viewpoint) sense of fashion.
Men’s 4s
Today we had our 2nd of 6 Cup Finals, with a home fixture v Rochford Casuals. We had an extremely strong looking squad today, so 3 points was going to be the order of the day. Push Back was at stupid o’clock, 10am, so there was the worry we’d not be alive to an early morning game.
That worry was completely unfounded, as we started quickly, as last week, we were 1-0 up within a couple of minutes, Frank opened the scoring. For the next 20 or so minutes we absolutely bossed the game, with some fantastically fluid hockey, nice and simple, great passing and moving, creating numerous chances and short corners, from which Amir, made it 2-0 with a lovely strike from a PC.
We just kept playing, at a very high level, adding a 3rd, 4th and 5th goal, another from Frank and Amir completing a hat trick in 25 minutes. For the last 10 minutes, of the 1st half we become very complacent, and conceded an extremely soft goal, and minutes later,would have conceded a 2nd, but for a fantastic double save from Stephen Kilbey.
We went in leading 5-1 at HT, and our HT chat focused around, how well we he played for 25 minutes, and to not be so sloppy and complacent 2nd half.
We duly got our edge back, lost our complacency, and started playing with the confidence we’d shown early on. To which we added another 3 goals, Dike Azu scoring his usual tap in goal from less than 12 inches, fox in the box. Frank duly completed his hat trick, and Alex Heath completed the scoring with a very competent finish, to give us an 8-1, emphatic victory.
We keep the pressure on the League Leaders, 2 Cup Finals Down 4 to go.
Another great team performance today, onwards and upwards guys, let’s keep that focus high for another month, keep turning out for training, as it’s paying great dividends for us.
To end just a massive thank you to, Katherine Abbie and Fish, for umpiring our game today. You both done an amazing job.
