WH&E M1 2 : 3 Hertford M2
The Men’s 1s were back at home this week, facing a strong Hertford side who had scored a lot of goals in their previous few games and were on form.
Winchmore started well, and controlled the game at times with some good transferring at the back and strong work across the pitch. The game was very tight and end to end but it was Winchmore who drew blood first with an excellently taken short corner by Colin into the bottom right corner.
Hertford came back fighting and finally equalised with a lucky goal sent in after some scrapping in the D not long before the end of the first half.
Winchmore then went out after the break with the plan to press high, work hard and go for a second goal. The plan worked and Winchmore went 2-1 up thanks to another great short corner from Colin, this time put away just inside the left post.
This fired Hertford up and they came back at us hard, pressured us high, forcing an error at the back and managing to equalise.
The game was extremely tense for the final 10/15 mins at 2-2 with end to end hockey and fighting hard from both sides. Sadly, Hertford were just too strong and in the final minute of the game broke through and scored to win the game 3-2.
Overall a really good performance from Winchmore who were so unfortunate to not get points from the game but we push on to Bedford away next week to build on the performance and bring home some more points.
MOTM by team vote goes to Paul for excellent work rate, several saving tackles and good runs forward. DOTD to Stuart for a blunder at the back for the second Hertford goal.
WH&E L1 0 : 2 PHC Chiswick L2s
The ladies 1’s played a hard fought and fast paced match vs Chiswick early on Saturday morning in tornado conditions. And too early for our DOTD Sarah who was still in her PJs at 9:45! The first half showed equal chances for both teams; we had some great crosses in from Sam and Gem but were unable to finish off with a goal. Chiswick had a few chances too and managed to score off a penalty corner and rebound in the D, after a great first save from Putty.
In the second half our ladies came out with a vengeance and brilliant chances came from Reanne with a breakaway, Karen Gray with an almost open net, Caroline with a solid shot on goal, Sam solid shots in, Karen Goode great crosses in and Beth being and running everywhere!
Team defence held a solid defensive formation and Gem, T, Sarah showed some offensive streaks, even going down in the opposition D! Although the opposing coach tried to deflate us with continuous ridicule that we ‘were tired’ (!!) our ladies played till the very end and even had a few great chances in the last 5 minutes, Beth having a chance with a pass from Gem in the last few seconds.
Shell managed to ‘matrix’ and be suspended in mid-air; Reanne, Gem, T, Sam were everywhere and we came off the pitch with heads held high as we played a very positive and trusting game. We then ate Colin’s face (what??!) and voted Beth MOTM for continuous pressure, annoying their defenders, and creating some fantastic opportunities for us to get it in the net. Disappointing result but a great game with tons of positives!
WH&E M2 0 : 8 Harpenden M3
The M2s were up nice and early to get to Harpenden for a 10:30 start. On a freezing morning one could tell we hadn’t really woken up and we conceded a few sloppy goals pretty quickly. They were all over us, a lot of pressure not giving us time on the ball, and pushing numbers forward in attack. They were clearly a good side. The somewhat late arrival of Joe S helped sort things out a little, and we managed to get past the halfway line a bit.
But problems remained. Despite heroic efforts the midfield couldn’t contain the numbers pressing forward and struggled to push on amidst the pressure. Tough first half. 5-0
In the second half after some rousing words we came out stronger. Leo, Guy, and when not injured, Luke, managed to push us on. It felt like their pressure forward started to leave them more exposed as they tired. Sadly no goals were forthcoming, but we were getting closer.
The final score was 8-0, but given we were 3-0 down in about 5 minutes, not a bad result.
MOTM: Leo – who was asked to drop back into the midfield. A good performance there, which probably isn’t what he wants to hear!
No match again this week for the Ladies 2s ☹