Another season kicked off again at the weekend, with a handful of matches hosted at Fortress TD on our brand new pitch. Our Ladies squads began their battle for points and our Men’s kept busy with friendlies. With some new players added to most teams, it looked to be a good weekend.
Men’s 1st XI
No match
Men’s 2nd XI 6-4 Addiscombe (Friendly)
Match report to follow.
Men’s 3rd XI Guildford (Friendly)
Match report to follow.
Men’s 4th XI Surbiton Sparticans
Men’s Barnstormers
No match
Men’s Hamstrings
No match
Ladies 1st XI 2-0 Spencer 3
On a drizzly Saturday Morning OCs Ladies 1s played away to Spencer Ladies 3’s for the first game of the 2018/19 season. The game started and was relatively end to end with neither team able to score the first half goal. At half time it was a stalemate at 0-0 despite OCs making over 10 circle entries but unable to secure any form of product.
The second half started with OCs struggling to play the way they wanted due to strong pressing and team play from Spencer.
Unfortunately, Spencer managed to secure the first goal despite Michelle making numerous quality saves.
OCs continued to attempt to put into practice the last few weeks of training but lost out to 50/50 balls and trying to run the ball out of difficulty rather than play it out as new coach Sam has encouraged us to play.
Under this new leadership, OCs went for a late move to push for an equaliser which unfortunately was not to be, despite their first short corner being won in the 68th minute! This late push for a goal ended up with conceding a second goal and the final whistle going at a loss of 2-0. Despite the score, OCs take positives into training and next weeks game ready to take on the league!
Ladies 2nd XI 4-2 Merton 1s
With the ladies leagues starting this week, the Ladies 2s had the honour of being the first team to have a league match on the new pitch. With that and last season’s promotion we were determined to secure a win from this fixture. We also had three new players (yippee!), so welcome to Teresa, Ellen and Liv.
We started the first half well, getting lots of possession in Merton’s half of the pitch, and with very little play in our own circle. However despite lots of shots on target we struggled to convert these into goals, and with a very attacking formation we found ourselves exposed on the counter-attack. Unfortunately, at the tail end of the half, Merton found themselves with their first short corner, from which – with a straight shot on goal – they scored :-(. Probably enough said about that half.
Dusting ourselves off, we went into the second half much stronger and with as much energy as we had thrown into the first half (easier said than done in the driving rain). That really started to pay off, and we scored a couple of goals in quick succession (courtesy of Ellen and then Jo) to take us ahead. Buoyed by our comeback we dominated, winning a number of short corners and scoring from two (Ellie and Mel) to take us 4-1 up. Within the last 10 minutes of the match Merton were able to nab another short corner from which they scored, but at this stage the momentum was with us, and so we finished the match in a 4-2 victory.
Everyone gave 100% to turn the match around, and it was great to see 3 of our 4 goals scored from short corners; the time spent on this at training is really paying off. We now start the league in the top spot, which I think is a great start to the season for the 2s.
Welcome again to our new players, thanks to Nick for coaching us through the match, and thank you to Martin for umpiring.
(Main photo above)
Ladies Vamps 3-0 Berryland 1s
Vamps started well and for the first half were attacking the oppo’s end and eventually from a lovely cross from Pam Laidman, Jane Taylor took the first blood. It then went end to end with fine defending from Berrylands, although their man marking left a lot to be desired, thankfully. During the second half, Katharine Stoddart scored two goals from short corners, perfectly taken by Alina Mir, on her debut for the Vamps. Georgina Wright and Hannah James from the Colts also ably supported the Vamps together with Rae from back to hockey and proved to be valuable assets to the team. Result 3-0 a good start to the season putting us top of Division 9, hopefully not for the last time. Jane
Ladies 3rd XI Epsom 6
Match report to follow.