Lines were drawn again and battle raged again at the weekend. We lost some good men and women out there; at the eating of the teas we will remember them.
Triumphing at Rourke’s Drift were… M1s L1s M2s M4s
Facing their Waterloo were… L2s M3s M5s
Returning ‘changed’ (but probably not showered) from Nam (hard to say who won)… L3s L4s
Missing in Action (presumed drunk)…. L5s
The WFHC medal of honour goes to the Ladies 1s for continuing their 100% record despite taking an early hit. We salute you ladies.
More details of valour and victory (and two draws and three loses) below.
Ladies 1s
The ladies first team got off to a poor start on Saturday allowing Ashford to score in the first 90 seconds of the game. Fortunately this seemed to be the catalyst for hard work from Waltham Forest,determined to keep their spot at the top of the league. Francesca Oddy drew the teams level with a goal after a lot of Waltham forest pressure. Lucy Butcher then put the team ahead with a strike from a short corner . With the score 2-1 at half time and a tough team talk from coach Georgina Zumeris the Waltham forest ladies went out fighting. Amy Morris scored a well worked goal from a brilliant ball from Sam Fish,Jenny Field then scored a deflection to take the score line to 4-1. With two minutes to play Waltham Forest were awarded a penalty flick which Lucy Butcher converted leaving the final score at 5-1. They have secured their number one position for another week. Lucy Butcher was awarded man of the match.
Ladies 2s
Ladies 2s didn’t fully capitalize on their endless chances, and ended up losing 3-1 Lizl scored, MOM – El, and DOD – Becki.
It’s time to practice our shooting for next week!
Men 1s
The 1s turned in a very accomplished performance against a good Harleston Magpies team who were sitting pretty in 4th before the match.
The match didn’t quite start to plan as a tame shot somehow found its ways through Yogi’s legs and was dribbling towards the goal but Tanswell was on hand to clear off the line. From then on things got better as Forest began to dominate and they soon found themselves a goal to the good when Luce popped up to find the back of the net. Forest pushed forward as the Magpies provided very little attacking threat. The forwards put pressure on the visiting defence and a stray pass ended up on the end of Luce’s stick and he made no mistake as he beat the on-rushing keeper. 2-0 and Forest were cruising but as with every other week we let Magpies back into the match with a very soft goal. That was as close as it got as a contest as Coach Malik hen went on a mazy run and despite being hacked and chopped all the time he found Liam lurking at the back post for an easy tap in. At this point the details may be a bit muddled and be a mixture of fact and fiction as I went off with an injury and quite frankly wanted to go home as it started raining. Anyway Terris somehow managed to get himself on upfront as a sub and there was a bit of arguing between him and Jacko as to who should stand on the post for the tap-ins. I think it was Liam who got the next goal, again a tap-in at the post as the team started making the right decisions in the d.
4-1 at halftime but captain and coach were still not entirely happy as the ball was given away far too often. Magpies started on the front foot in the second half never really threatened the score. Jacko then got his obligatory goal from the usual yard out, not sure if you put all his goals together he would not have reached the penalty spot yet. New boy Rich Arkle then seemed to go on an aerial frenzy as for the next 15 mins nothing was played on the ground but he redeemed himself when he took a dive in the d and earned himself a penalty flick which Nico put high into the roof of the net for the second week running. The visitors did get a consolation late on to make the final score 6-2 in what was a much improved performance from the previous week and moves us up into 4th place after a very slow start.
Men 2s
For the first time in several weeks the mens 2s looked slow to start and a little disjointed in their play.
Some might blame the long away trip, others the use of dance club anthems in the dressing room pre-match, the more honest would just say that for the first 10minutes we were pretty crap.
Saffron Walden fielded a strong young team who pressed high and played with a good tempo. Despite not creating lots of chances the home side went 1-0 up after defensive Tom momentary lost his bearings on the short corner and produced a what would have been a great finish if it had been in the right net. Forest started to wake up and grabbed one back and then had a goal that looked to have crossed the line ruled out. Sadly the red mist then descended and Immy saw his third yellow of the season to leave his teammates with 10men.
Despite some consistently heroic keeping by the hungover but brilliant Dan, Saffron made the most of their numerical advantage to retake the lead. Once restored to 11 men though Forest again pegged back the home side before Immy took advantage of a goal keeping error to finally give the green and whites the lead.
With Boxall starting to dominate at defensive mid, breaking up play and then spreading the ball wide the tide finally looked to be turning. And so it proved as Forest extended their lead to 2-4.
Despite Matt Tanswell continuing to threaten with strong dynamic play, Alec Zetter looking a cut above the opposition and Waz holding up the ball and linking well Forest couldn’t find a fifth goal and when Saffron grabbed one back with 8 minutes remaining it looked like being a nervy finish. However Forest stood firm, finally stayed calm and continued to hold the ball despite opposition pressure and petulant challenges.
Shout of the week surely goes to one of the oppo’s mum for boldly advising “Don’t let them intimidate you!”, confusingly after Matt Tanswell stayed stoic and friendly in the face of an awful foul bordering on assault.
It wasn’t pretty at times but the M2s got the job done against a strong opposition. Tim Boxall just edged man of the match for his 2nd half display despite great performances from Dan, Zetter, Tom and Matt T. The green and white machine rumbles on…
Men 4s
Today’s game was not a typical M4s performance; what it was, was a gutsy 70 minutes for WFHC to draw deep on its resources to field a side when the captain was still unsure of turning out 11 players at 10pm on a Friday night. We’ll take the win and move on.
Brentwood Academy dominated most of the game through wind, rain and possibly a little sleet. In the first half Forest were lacking movement from free hits and were getting caught on the ball as we were too slow at distribution and failling to run into space.
I started the game with a diamond midfield formation in the hope that we would create triangle as we progressed up the pitch. In truth we just left massive gaps.
The only goal came after about 25 minutes with some rapid and precise ball movement up the length of the pitch. Mark received the ball slightly left of centre on the 23 and Aamir created space for himself in the D to receive the pass. A cracking shot meant that the keeper could only deflect the ball and Sam was in the right place at the right time. Nicely worked.
Ozzi in goal saved us on many an occasion as Brentwood piles on the pressure in the second half. We reverted to a flat four Indigirka to absorb the pressure. The match became a little one sided as the pressure in our D mounted. We created a few more breaks but could repeat the earlier success. Brentwood will be gutted to have lost the three points.
With only five M4 squad players on the pitch it is difficult the gauge truly where our faults lie as this was not a team that had played together. One thing that is for sure, success only comes from a stable core in the team. I don’t think we can maintain our current run of success without this; so fingers crossed this win is the low point of our season. A great gutsy performance by all who turned out for us to and my thanks to you all.
I not going to bother this week with the Teamer man of the match process – it is clearly Ozzi that kept us in the frame today.
Wapping also won today so we stay second in the league. Saffron Walden 6 lost which creates a bit of daylight between second and third spots, but the season is still young. Green Army onwards.
Men Otters
The M5s gave a hugely resourceful performance away at Witham 4s, playing without substitutes due to the lack of players across the lower-level teams in the club. After an even first half we trailed 2-0 at the break after a couple of defensive blunders, which remained the final score. We dominated the second half, showing great determination and spirit, coming close, but not managing to pull our way back into the game. Leading the man of the match voting were 2 players in unaccustomed positions – George, in a more advanced role providing attacking threat down the left, and Joshua Field producing a dynamic performance in centre midfield.
