Match Reports For Week 29 Sat. 17th Mar. Season 2000 - 2001
Mens 1st XI
No report submitted.
Mens 2nd XI
No report submitted.
Mens 3rd XI
Staines Men’s 3’s - Match Report - 17 March 2001. Versus: PHC Chiswick.
“Its still in our hands” said our Skipper as the first drops of rain bounced off his shiny dome, although we do need other results to go our way also. A win today would almost probably be enough, a draw will leave it going down to the wire, a loss would leave us down shit creek with no means of propulsion.
Fortunately we managed to blagg 12 players this week, including two Holloway students we are trying to work on to join the Club. This was wise, as Porno Kings ankle is still not all its cracked up to be and Uncle Festers ankles are going through another extremely fragile phase. The game started brightly for Staines, the two students (Russell and Mark) and new boy Martin Kercher showing lots of youthful liveliness.
Then we had a familiar story, PHC won a short corner against the run of play, which they duly converted. Fortunately being 0-1 down after ten minutes is familiar territory for the Blue Army 3rd Battalion so did not let it get to us. We rained attacks upon PHC but all to little avail, as they were narrowly missed, were saved, or Alpesh trod on the ball. With some relief, yet another good ball into their D was delivered and this time Martin Rengger smacked it home superbly as an expert goal grabber should.
In the first half we did not win a single short corner yet gave away several. At the start of the second half we forced three within minutes of the whistle! Couldn’t convert them though. With a rather risky all out attack style we we’re leaving our defence exposed as the PHC midfield regular broke forward unmarked. Eventually this led to their second goal. Several more short corners later, a few more trod on balls or flailing miss hits we remained camped out around the PHC D but still 1-2 down. Finally with barely a minute left, Staines took a quick free hit deep in our half on the right, switched the ball across to the left and up the wing, where Martin K latched onto it, drove onwards and brilliantly finished. PHC had hardly got the ball away from the Centre spot before the final whistle blew, 2-2 draw.
And now for the weekly awards:-
Hero of the Day – The new boy, Martin K, who acted as super sub and has brought the average age of the team down from an arthritic 38 ¾ to a more supple 30.
Donkey’s Turd Tunnel – It was almost Alpesh, who was coughing up fur balls with his from Hero to zero performance. We’re having him down the Vets in the week to be de-wormed. But the award went to Mart the Tart who thought he had got away with puking up after sipping a small orange juice aperitif just after last weeks game. Some hockey players have long memories.
Vince Rowley.
Mens 4th XI
Staines 4's v High Wycombe 4A's
Venue : Cranford
Result : Lost 2-6
Scorers : Aiden Horner, Keith Hine
Before today's game both teams had been in good form, however this contest didn't stay close for long. With Gordon, Matty and MartinK all missing from last week's lineup, and an injury to ChrisG barely 5 mins into the game we were always going to struggle against the high-riding visitors. The first 15 mins saw almost relentless pressure from the quick footed opponents and it was no surprise when they took a deserved lead. Question marks must be asked about the quality of defending that left the man clear on his own in the D.
As in other games this season you can rely on the fact that the 4th XI will not give up in the face of adversity, and after a few mins of total defence we caught the visitors on a quick break, and Aiden rounded the last defender and shot through the keepers legs for the equaliser. With the 3rd XI giving vocal support we now raised our game, and began to look as though we were in with a chance of getting something from the game.
Then some poor marking at a sideline hit inside our 25, together with a mix up in our box and the visiting forward needed no 2nd invitation to slot home the second. Voices were raised and the team looked a little shaky. The visitors poured forward swamping the midfield and using both attacking corners to stretch our defence all over the place. Somehow we struggled to half-time only 1-2 down.
A re-arrangement at half-time and we put Simon man-on-man on their midfield playmaker, which for the first 5 minutes seemed to work. However, the visitors had also made some switches and moved both their right half and right back upfield to swamp the left of our defence, and soon they scored a third, and then minutes later one of their forwards received the ball at the top right of the D, set himself, and rifled a reverse stick cross-shot into the far corner - a bit too good for us.
With the game safe the visitors threw not only the kitchen sink but all the cupboards, washing machines and dishwashers at us, and then scored a fifth as a shot sneaked through a crowd of players and through Pete's legs. 1-5.
Then from a our first corner the shot was blocked by a foot and with a bit of quick thinking the 2nd short corner was smashed home by Keith. 2-5. Now we had a lot of play going forward and nearly scored when Aiden shot from a tight angle against the keepers pads when a simple layoff would have given the captain a goal. Then Aiden did cross one and Chris Hine missed the ball from less than a yard out! And then to cap it all Ada turned beautifully in the box, shimmied and shot wide of the far post, with your very frustrated captain standing in front of an open goal a few yards away ... rats, rats and more rats.
Near the end the visiting quicksilver forward netted his 4th as he cut inside feinted one way and flicked the ball the other - just inside the post 2-6.
Our worst defeat since we lost 4-0 away to Wycombe before Xmas - however we were short of some key players, didn't defend as well as we normally do, and we missed three easy goals in the 2nd half alone. However, High Wycombe and West Hampstead deserve their promotions as they are clearly much better than everyone else in this league. We can take heart from our performances this season, but we need to learn from games like this if we are to mount a promotion challenge next season.
Martin Jackson
Mens 5th XI
No report submitted.
Mens Centurions
No report submitted.
Ladies 1st XI
No report submitted.
Ladies 2nd XI
No report submitted.
Ladies 3rd XI
Staines III (4) V Thames Valley (1) - 17th March
A cold and damp start at St Pauls for Staines Ladies III, however the team performed well, and some excellent play by Ingrid Fear in midfield kept Staines pushing forward. Ellie Gadd in her unusual position as on the forward line, managed to score three superb goals. Alison Ford finally found the net after lots of hard work at the front, which resulted in some fines saves by the Thames Valley Goalkeeper. A well deserved win for Staines III as we draw towards the end of the season.
Kate Lemon
Ladies 4th XI
No report submitted.