Winchmore Hill & Enfield Hockey Club

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By admin February 10, 2022 In 2021-22, Ladies, Mens

Week 14 – Thirsty work for M1s, but L2 & M2 take the points

WH&E M1 1 : 6 Hampstead & Westminster Thirsts

After last week’s great win, the M1s were looking to keep the momentum going and take home 3 points against Hampstead & Westminster Thirsts. It was a sunny Saturday morning in Maida Vale, and we were playing on an excellent pitch with a full squad of 15. So far so good!

We started off well, playing with a high press and held the upper hand in the early exchanges. Some strong tackles in midfield won us possession, but we couldn’t find the final pass to create a meaningful chance in front of goal. The opposition grew more confident as the half went on, starting to pose a few more problems for the M1s defence, and taking the lead after about 15 minutes.

But we kept our heads and went searching for an equaliser, which we thought we’d found. A good attack up the left from Jack Wilson, resulted in the ball popping up off a Thirsts’ player onto another defender’s body, from where it dropped down into the path of Colin Foad who calmly slotted it home. No whistle, no goal. After some discussion between the umpires, they decided on a short corner instead 🤷‍♂️ To make matters worse, the Thirsts promptly scored their second goal on the stroke of half-time.

During the break we decided to play the high press again, as it had worked in the first 15 minutes of the game, and our pressure told with some high turnover ball and a number of chances created. Then, a perfectly executed penalty corner gave Colin the opportunity for a clean strike on goal which evaded the keeper and man on the line to go in. We scored the goal we so desperately needed, 2-1.

But after that, we lost our way – lacking focus to turn the game around and giving the ball away too easily. Hampstead scored again with an outrageous one-handed diving tomahawk to make it 3-1, and then bundled in another easy goal to make it 4-1. Many subs came on and off creating chaos in our midfield and defence, and the opposition made full use of this to score two more goals.

We had a good final 5 minutes but didn’t manage to score again. The match ended in a 6-1 loss, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time in the pub afterwards where we decided to celebrate last week’s win and quickly forget about our defeat!

MOTM: Jake Tasker, for an all round solid display in at least 3 different positions!
DOTD: Josh Rider, for not staying to celebrate his birthday with the team!

WH&E L2 1 : 0 Old Uxonians L1

The team selection was done. The goals were out. The warm up was completed.

We started strong with lovely passing play down the lines and several short corners, but we couldn’t quite find the goal. However, a pass out from defence, the ball was carried towards the D and into Kareen who turned and swept it into the goal. A well-deserved 1-0 half time.

The second half they came out fighting, with swings of sticks flying all over. Some truly terrible 16s from Pip and I meant that Chris had to make some fantastic saves, keeping a clean sheet and saving our bacon several times. The Christmas trees got more frustrated and more physical when they couldn’t get one in the goal, culminating with Pippa getting a stick to the head.

At times we made it hard for ourselves but overall, a well-deserved win.

An extra special thank you to Sam Deane, who came to umpire us on her bye week and ended up umpiring the M2s as well due to Pip’s head injury.

WH&E M2 3 : 1 Ealing M1

No match report from the M2s victory, but we do have this rather nice penalty corner video!


No match this week for the Ladies 1s…

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