7th February 2015
A great weekend for the club with wins for the Ladies and both the Mens 2s and 3s. Only the Mens 1s prevented a clean sweep, recording only their 4th loss of the season against Purley with a much-depleted team.Goals for Charlie Richardson, Andrew Farquar and a generous Old Kingstonian player gave the Mens 2s their win, cementing their place in the league’s mid-table. The Mens 3s also lead from the start and whilst two late goals meant the 4-2 scoreline slightly flattered, they never looked like losing. The win means they are sitting just one point behind league leaders Teddington at the top of the table with promotion still very much on the cards.
The Ladies pushed back against Leatherhead looking to turn things around after a tough January. Their heroics deserve a more complete account:
Ladies vs Leatherhead
We turned up to the game with a strong squad of 14 and won the push back. Tash started the game with a strong pass back to the mid fields and out we went to the right wing, where May gave the oppo their first taste of her pace down the line. We attacked hard but the play came back out and around to the left where Jackie soon got the ball and ran down the line and through the defense to score the first goal. 1-0 to us.
This gave the team a boost of confidence and energy. We passed the ball well across the pitch and used the backs to transfer across. Leatherhead were quick to put pressure on us and we needed to be quicker on our first touch. Our first short corner. A cracking shot by Georgie Syms was narrowly deflected wide and it was very unlucky not to go in. After the long, the forwards worked hard to win several more shorts but we failed convert any of them. Jackie and Georgie Syms working well at the top of the D supported by the other forwards but to no avail. Leatherhead came back at us and scored their first goal after a break.
With the support of Georgie Sangster, Sophie De Haast and Emma, Helen controlled the backs and defended a quite a few short corners in the first half. Leatherhead equalized off of a long corner and then scored again with a slight drop in concentration after the equalizer. 1-2 at half time.
We knew what we needed to do – after a brief team talk, acting captain Liz turned to the backs and the forwards for their tips on what was happening. General consensus was that we needed to up our pace on the first touch and start believing we could get the win. We knew we could do it, we just needed to get back in the game and do it.
The second half started much energized. The Fletch and Syms were working hard at skipping around the defense up front with Tash and Laura holding their positions high and putting pressure on Leatherhead’s defense. We lost De Haast in the back and pulled Jackie and Tonie back one down the left wing. Philly stepped in to the midfield with May and Liz and with Georgie Sangster hustling we scored our equalizer. The push was on now to get the winning goal or at the very least keep the draw.
Leatherhead fought hard and won several shorts of their own. One notable one was given after a questionable “back of stick” tackle by Jackie. Livid at the outcome of giving away a short corner, Jackie refused to accept the accusation and got herself a green card. However, the team lined up against Leatherhead and defended the short well. After another short given, we defended and broke away from them. Jackie, Liz and Tonie running down the wing, almost running out of pitch we managed to cross the ball into the D to Fletch and we scored again. 3-2.
Then it became all about composure. We kept the ball and the pressure on but made sure Leatherhead weren’t going to get another equalizer. Final whistle – 3-2 to the OCs!!