Match Reports For Week 15 Saturday 8th December Season 2001 - 2002

Mens 1st XI

Mens 2nd XI

Staines 1 Marlow 0

West Hampstead was this week's opponents. One of the three or four teams that winning this league will probably come down to, and always being a tough game, the Staines boys knew this would be a tough game.

The game started complacently for Staines in the first 10 minutes. One short corner was won by each team but neither was converted. Staines then began lifting their game, keeping to basic hockey of accurate passing and movement by players. Several shots on goal did not provide the necessary conversion to put Staines ahead, but at the end of the first half Staines came out on top of West Hampstead. Another inspiring team talk from the Bolton/Oliver combination saw the boys start the second half where they left off in the first. West Hampstead also entered the second half strongly, and it was clear it was going to be a tough battle for Staines. A short corner was won by West Hampstead but stout defending saw it away. Similarly, a couple of short corners by the Staines frontline failed to convert. Shortly after West Hampstead drove down the centre resulting in several shots on the Staines goal. Some good saves were made, but in particular a save off the Staines goal line by Jerry Gardien resulted in a clearance out of the D. Staines then went on to gain another short corner. The push went out, stopped and passed to Oliver who moved to the right, faked a shot, continued towards outside the right goal post and crossed the ball for it to be deflected in by Lee Atkinson. West Hampstead began to lose heart but fought back hard none the less. But Staines managed to hold on, even James Hall proving he can keep possession of the ball for the last minute.

All the Staines players put the work rate in and it showed. Winning this league is now definitely within our grasp.

MOM: Jerry Gardien
DOD: Mik Quinlan

Mik Quinlan

Mens 3rd XI

Staines 3 versus West Hampstead 3.
This was a big game. This game could make or break the season. This game was against our closest rivals this side of Christmas. They arrived early. They came tooled up with many substitutes. They warmed up whilst we were still getting the pitch ready. The frost was lying deep and crisp and even down the far side of the Stade de Illuminaire and it took considerable effort manhandling the brush to minimise the problem. Edward, those trees will have to have a severe hair cut or we will have games called off regularly due to ice. Rod spotted an old adversary from last year, a WH forward, a big coloured bloke looking a bit like Ian Wright. Rod says 'He's crap, I'll deal with him no problem.' - more of this later !

Unfortunately Staines had to re-organise our defence into a completely different configuration due to a combination of the 2's nicking players and Whispering Sid going arse over tit down the steps at Waterloo station on his way home from work. Mr Safety moved to Centre Back with Pace O'Brien sweeping, Mr Zambia and Sponging Student Lees-Low took up right and left back positions. The game started and both teams crashed together. Ebbing and flowing up and down the pitch, there was no clear domination and then a flurry of activity down the left, the ball pinged around in their D to be finally put out of its misery by Dave Woolycat. He thrashed it majestically into the net to much rejoicing by Staines and much gnashing of teeth by WH.

Not long after WH, giving it maximum thrutch and putting us under considerable pressure broke down the right, their winger (Ian Wright, you remember) turned Rod inside out, disembowelled him and left him for dead, before charging along the byline towards our poised keeper Keith 'Me Zimmer frame is stuck to the ice' Hine. 'Ian' flicked the ball past Keith towards his WH mates charging in. He needn't have worried as Mr Safety in attempting to deflect the ball away from the immense danger could only despair as the ball dribbled into the goal. Not very safe, Mr Safety ! Still Staines entered a purple patch and with the pace of our two wingers Forrest Kercher and Bobble Hat we managed to prize open their defence on several occasions. Eventually a Short corner brought a deserved reward, Rowley, Rengger and O'Brien conspiring to deliver a ball to Chewy to drill into the goal. The rest of the half was shear hard graft, the Staines bastions holding fast, defending like their very lives depended and snuffing out several WH short corners to boot. The Old Fella in goal did well to clear the line a couple of times although his catheter got tangled at one point to yank him to the floor, he soon got up with barely a tear in his eye. Fortunately they missed a sitter by putting it 3 inches over the bar. Keith was not concerned, he didn't see it so had nothing to be concerned about. Dunners held the middle like the rock of Gibraltar but without any monkeys crapping on him, Pace O'Brien marshalled the defence with the imperious skill of Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. Let there be no mistake, this was a battle, blood and snot misted the air, stick splinters scattered on the ground and the screams of the wounded went unheeded. Half time and a brief re-group with Staines at a 2-1 advantage.

Again Staines started the stronger, with good work by James, Alpesh and Dunners creating openings for the forward line. The defence had nipped down to B&Q and we were now erecting even stronger bastions, with Mr Safety giving it loads on the cement mixer. Another lightening Staines attack resulted in the hard working Mart the Tart feeding Forrest Kercher, he stretched for the ball just enough to send it over the line. Unfortunately Lees-Low had a rush of blood a few minutes later, which bearing in mind the strict but correct nature of the umpires could only result in one thing - a yellow card. Well it was a horrendous stick tackle that left an unsightly dog leg in the WH players stick. Whilst Mark had a rest we were put under tremendous pressure. WH brought up the reserves, the big guns, nuclear warheads, the lot. Staines kept them out, we kept making the 50/50's ours, we kept clearing our lines. Until they eventually found a weak spot where the cement wasn't quite dry and WH managed to nick the ball into the net. That was their last real goal opportunity, it should be noted that their centre forward never got a sniff - he might have been a bit tasty but he couldn't get past Mr Safety. Soon after, back at full strength, Staines again played the ball the full length of the pitch with some superb passing to enable Chewy to purr himself into a frenzy after getting his second. WH again pressed on, but to no avail, our defensive bastions were too strong our midfield too determined and our attack too fast. The result was an important 4-2 win to the Blue 3rd Battalion.

Hero: It was a team of hero's this game, but if anyone deserved to carry the flag today then it was Deano.

Big Girls Frills: A difficult decision. Sid got a mention for collapsing not on a hockey pitch. But a land slide vote went to the yellow card holder Mr Lees-Low.

Mens 4th XI

Wokingham 3's v Staines 4's

This game marks the halfway point in the season. We entered the game feeling as though we should have 5 or 6 points more than we've got so it was important that we didn't toss away any more points against fast-improving Wokingham.

Having lost their first 6 games heavily (best result 1-5) they recently hit form only losing 0-2 to Ashford in 2nd place, and gaining a 0-0 and 1-1 draw against Windsor and Mill Hill respectively. After only 10 or so minutes it was easy to see where their improvements have been made. Firstly they had a keeper who looked rather good for a side who had conceded over 50 goals this season, and numbers 4 and 5 playing just in front of the defence also seemed to be playing in a team below their standard.

The game started with a furious assault by Staines on the home goal, and soon Nick broke through from his emergency left wing role to test the keeper, who went down well to save well struck first time shots. After 10 mins the keeper was rooted to the spot as Matty crashed the ball from just outside the 25 in a line just left of the penalty spot ... picking out the looping run of Martin round the back of the defence .. but the pace was just a little too hard and Martin was inches away from applying the gentle deflection required.

Sohail enjoyed a couple of runs down the right wing on his 4th XI debut, and with Dave charging forward from full back it only looked like a matter of time before the deadlock was broken. then inexplicably we started leaving the opponents loads of space to pass into from 16's etc. Matty and Dave were on a couple of occassions caught too far up the pitch and Phil had to do rather more sweeping with his brush than was comfortable. As we lost a bit of cohesion the home side even managed to force a couple of good saves out of Alex.

With only 5 minutes to go before half-time it looked like we were heading for our 7th successive drinks break at 0-0 .. but then ... Martin won the ball in the centre circle, waited for Chris to support, slipped the ball to him. We all then watched as Chris danced his way past three defenders and into the 25, the pass to the left wing looked good, but then Chris turned right beating the last man and into the D ... a powerful strike and the ball smashed home into the backboard ... halleluliah ! It's raining goals ... Staines are 1-0 up ... zippetty do dah ...

Half-time: the orange squash tasted sweet but not so the team talk ... we'll lose if we keep playing like that ... we must pass the ball better ... the man on the ball must have more options ... etc

The lights came on, but for the first 20 minutes they might as well have switched them off at the Staines end so that Alex could have caught up on a bit of sleep - how inconsiderate of our hosts. Attack after attack rained in on the home goal but to their credit they held out. Richard was now playing alike a man possessed and Chris was beavering away in the middle of the park .. which unfortunately meant there was no centre forward high enough to pick up the rebounds off the keeper (something to work on in the Xmas friendlies). As we have found to our cost this year not scoring goals when you are dominating games means the opposition are always in with a shout. However, with Matty switched to the centre and Phil switched with Nick, all the Wokingham counter attacks were being easily mopped up by Nick in his floating role.

Staines piled forward and started to win some short corners as the Wokingham defence tired. A couple of close shaves ... and then a slip right to Martin, pass inside as shot to the right post for Chirs to touch home ... no he's not there he's 3 yards away .. we must get more discipline into our short corner routine! Then a minute or so later ... great push, Matty stops 1st time, a perfect slip to Phil on the angle ... he has load of time to smash it home ... what's that he's jumped over it ... the defender nips in and 20 secs later we are almost at 1-1. Wokingham now threw extra players forward chasing the equaliser, and suddenly the game switched to our half for a few minutes ... and giving Gordon a chance to stretch his legs a bit .. it's not often you see the winger being outpaced by an umpire !!

Having held firm for these few minutes of pressure we stormed down the other end and Chris touched one home under the keeper's body to make the game safe, and then Phil squandered another golden chance when he had time to stop the ball on his reverse, got his feet round, and then flicked the ball straight to the keeper's right hand by the post.

Result : Won 2-0

Man of the Match : Chris's 2 goals edged him ahead of Richard 6-4 in a two-horse race. Also special mention for Sohail and Phil W who shared an opportunity to demonstrate their progress in the 5's ... and they did not disappoint ... with highlights being Sohail nutmegging his full back, and Phil's incredible running back into a defensive position on home side 16's.

Dick of the Day: Phil L won it for a combination of the great short corner dummy and the last minute miss, but only just from Martin.

Captain's Log 20011208

It's half-time in the league season and we can feel slightly disappointed with our 5th position in the league ... especially as no team has outplayed us and we have still lost 5 times !! In particular if we had won the OMT and Amersham games (which we could have) we would be clear in 2nd place !!!! We have the second best defensive record with only 10 goals conceded in 11 games ... last season it was 27 !! However, up front we have scored only 14 exactly the same as last year. In the second half last year Simon's return from injury saw Gordon go up front and we stormed away to score 27 in the next 11 games. Something similar this year built on our solid backline and we would be in with a shout in the promotion stakes ... especially as the weekend saw all our main rivals drop points. Banbury after a 1-4 mauling by Amersham are only 3 pts ahead of us, Hayes are 4 pts and Ashford 5pts ahead after sharing a 0-0 draw, and Amersham are a further 6 pts ahead of Ashford.

Also, one of the teams in Div 1 pulled out earlier in the season so there may be a third promotion slot available. Let's go for it ... an unbeaten run to the end of the season and up we will go ...

Mens 5th XI

Mens Centurions

Ladies 1st XI

Saturday
Hampstead & Westminster II 0 Staines 1 (League).

Staines got the much needed win from a not so good game.
With quite a few distractions Staines stood the task and got the win they needed to keep up the pressure at the top of the Middlesex Premier league.

Sunday
Havant 2 Staines 1

Staines travelled to Havant who are two divisions above them in the South Division 1 for the 3rd round of the HA Cup. Havant seemed confident of the win but not of the fight that Staines would put up. Despite giving away a flick in the early part of the first half Staines levelled the scoring with a goal from Melanie Attfield. Havant quickly scored a second which meant Staines worked even harder to try to get the scores back to level. Staines had a goal disallowed during the second half but kept up the pressure and were very unlucky to have not got the goal back. An excellent team performance by Staines during the second half. Staines now have a Middlesex Cup match next Saturday at home against Enfield before the Christmas break.

Ladies 2nd XI

Ladies 3rd XI

Ladies 4th XI