Match Reports For Week 27 Saturday 2nd March Season 2001 - 2002

Mens 1st XI

Another lacklustre performance by Staines on Saturday saw them lose 1-0 away to Gore Court. Despite a good start by the Blues, applying most of the early pressure, it was Gore Court who took an early controversial lead. With the Blues averaging over a three goals a game this season, it should only have been a matter of time before they drew level. Matt Truman indeed went close later in the first half and should have perhaps done better from short range, and Staines had to be content with being one goal behind at half time.

The Blues came out fighting after the break but failed to turn possession into goals, and as the game progressed it looked increasingly unlikely that Staines would score. Gore Court sat all eleven players behind the ball and seemed content just to clear their lines. Unfortunately for the Swans this tactic proved successful and the game ended disappointingly 1-0 in Gore Courts favour.

Mens 2nd XI

Staines 3 - Banbury 2

After the defeat by Banbury before Christmas, Staines were keen to get a measure of revenge in this championship decider. The blue army started a little sluggishly and Banbury pressed their advantage creating some good chances. First blood went to the visitors with some scrappy defending leading to a simple deflection past Woods in the Staines goal. The Blues fought back hard and their determination won reward through a string of short corners that a well worked move through Greenway, Oliver, Hall and Atkinson. The balance of play shifted either way but with Staines giving away too much possession through long ball, Banbury pressed on to make it 1-2 against. The Half time talk allowed Staines to gain their composure but that was forgotten as Banbury kicked on again from the 2nd half whistle. This spurred the Blues into action and through determined tackling and plenty of crowd support the balance shifted to the home teams favour. With pressure mounting Banbury couldn't get into the other half and another short corner made the scores level. It was a tense last 10 minutes but through a break down the right wing Mallender lifted over the goalie seemingly on to his first ever goal for the club - however with Greenway being the poacher that he is slapped it home from a yard. The Blues held on to a memorable victory and set their sights on the championship.

Mens 3rd XI

City of Oxford 4s vs. Staines 3s.

An early start required, which was a challenge for Chewy, but we arrived in good time to warm up. Chewy arrived as is the custom in the nick of time after offloading some dodgy DVD's in Southall. We were facing relegation fodder, whom as they had a chance of avoiding the drop if they won today, had all the motivation they needed.

Initially the game appeared to be following the normal course of events that Staines have come to expect. An early attack saw Forrest scorch down the wing, cut in and shoot. His shot was parried away by their keeper into the path of a surprised Kingsley 'Half a Shandy' Kemish. For a second he froze like a rabbit caught in headlights but then plonked the ball neatly into the net. Then it all went a bit pear shaped for the Blue Army. Some frustration crept into our play, niggles at each other and at their umpire seemed to unsettle the equilibrium. CoO soon took advantage, catching our midfield too far upfield they managed to get a man over on our normally composed Bastions. The ball was not fully cleared and CoO managed to poke the ball into our net. Encouraged by this CoO were getting the best of the run of the ball and we were looking very ordinary. We were guilty of some howling missed shots, including the normally reliable Mr Safety who at a short corner completely miss cued his favourite shot (it went very quiet as players took mental note of that). With only a few minutes of the half remaining CoO managed to force in a second goal and to be fair they deserved it. For the first time this season Staines took a half time losing.

A frank and objective discussion was held with the occasional 'feck' thrown in for good measure. The second part opened with an exciting flurry and within a minute Staines won a short corner (super! quick lap of honour.). The short initiated several attempts at goal while CoO failed to clear, eventually the ball was retrieved by Mr Safety outside the D, who belted it towards the back post. Mart the Tart just needed to check it into the net and we were back level. It was clear that Staines had now got its act together. Soon after there was a mass scramble for the ball in the CoO D, Chewy got free with the ball and sliced a shot goalwards - ish. Forrest from his most effective range (3 feet) forced the ball into the goal. This was more like it and now it was CoO's turn to get niggly. After a period of dogged CoO defence denying Staines a decent chance at goal, Dunners decided to charge their D like a rampant Rhino. He was felled by a lumberjack at the third attempt so the award of a P-flick was a mere formality. But who was to take it ? The Tart was adamant he was not. Mr Safety is not allowed (for reasons of Safety) and it would take to long to wheel Keith up there with all his medical paraphernalia. "I'll fecking take it" and he did, and he scored - well done Dunners.

Staines were now back in full control, despite the occasional CoO attack and a couple of short corners thrown in, they did not give Keith much to worry about. More goals for Staines were inevitable as CoO regularly conceded short corners in desperation to stop open play goal attempts. A neat change of short corner routine, with Mr Safety feeding Chewy wide, who then slipped a measured pass for Mart the Tart to bury his second goal and our fifth. With perhaps 5 minutes remaining Staines delivered the coup de grace. An initial short corner resulted in the keeper sitting on the ball with Mr Safety encouraging him to get up by tapping him in the love spuds with his stick and the award on another short for Staines. This next attempt, although poorly injected, allowed two good shots by Chewy and the Tart to be blocked, the second parried away towards Mr Safety who managed to sweep it into the net first time under the collapsing keeper. Truly this was a game of two halves, the second being worth remembering, the first to be buried and best forgotten. A 6-2 win, and now with two games remaining against very good teams, Staines 3's will need to lift our efforts considerably if we are to maintain the unbeaten record.

Hero: A number of candidates were put forward but in the end Dunners and Forrest had equal votes. Forrest just sprinting into the lead on the tie break. Both could hold their heads up and say they had good games.

Big Girls Blouse: Also a number of candidates. This time with Chewy Patel and Mr Safety gaining 3 votes each (Uncle Fester looked relieved!). After a recount somehow Mr Safety gained nine votes ! Obviously the poor first half had not been forgotten.

Mens 4th XI

Staines 4th XI v Old Merchant Tailors 3rd XI

All looked fairly good for selection this week with only Chris having an extended run in the 3rd XI - until Friday night when we lost Kingsley as well. Add to that Dave's hamstring injury and things could have been better. On the positive side this was a home game and our confidence was high with a record of 8 wins and 1 defeat behind us, in which we had scored 32 goals with only 3 in reply.

The game started with the blue army on the rampage through the OMT defenisve lines. After some lovely hockey a couple of shorties were won. With some new short corner ideas in place they didn't quite come off as expected. A good move down the left saw the ball through to Martin who slipped the ball through to Gordon who was inches away from touching the ball home at the back post. Then OMT realised that the game was on and started passing nicely through the midfield and with their pacy forwards they started to cause some consternation in the home defence. Fortunately James kept a tight reign on their centre forward and with some clean kicking Alex kept the ball away from the danger areas. Unlike the normal script for home games the defence panicked a little and soon we were shelling the ball from defence straight back to the OMT midfield who were now growing in confidence.

Mark Lees-Low had come back from London with his conference cancelled and was itching for a game .. so on he went to provide some additional support to the midfield. There were a couple of further scares at the back but Martin made three consecutive blocks as the OMT left winger tried to convert and Matty made some timely interceptions. At the other end Phil, Gordon and Sohail had the beating of the visitors defence. The problem was in midfield where we just taking one too many touches and either getting caught in posession or being put under pressure. Then the game turned as Simon, Mike and Andy moved the ball quickly out to the right where Martin slipped it back to Andy (I think) who drove on into the D and crossed to Gordon to sweep the ball home at the back post. 1-0 !!!

Half-time 1-0

After the break it was much more like the Staines 4th XI we have seen since Xmas as we worked the ball around and down both flanks. With Mark moved inside to support Mike, and Andy switched to right half the side had a much better balance and soon the pressure started to build on the OMT defence. Gordon's half-time team talk concentrated on keeping possession, and Martin's about how we'll win some short corners this half as we are attacking Jonathan's end. This was only partially correct as after foot in the D Jonathan played advantage and Gordon moved another two inches forward before the same rustic no 14 chopped into his stick way off the ground - penalty flick. Gordon put it to the same place this week as last week but the OMT keeper just managed to get his hand to it to keep it out. No matter shortly another bit of rough house defending led to another short corner - a pattern that was repeated regularly throught the 2nd period. The incessant pressure was too much for OMT and Mark burst through over the penalty spot having three or four chunks taken from his stick, but still he could not be stopped and he slotted the ball home whimpering about the his battered fingers, arms and ankles. 2-0

Andy Nelhams did two or three mazy runs of similar ilk but all he got was a flashing drive just past the far post, another into the side of the goal, and a gash on his ankle - a stick chop that went through his shin pad. Nice controlled team the OMT lot !

With the game looking fairly safe Martin brought Sohail back on to give him some more much needed exposure at this level, and he did well. Taking up some fine centre forward positions he almost took it past the last man to score, then managed to lift the ball into his own leg trying to sweep the ball from near the p-spot, and then when he forced another shot goalwards the OMT foot cleared it off the line. This time Gordon put the p-flick away to the other side - 3-0.

Man of the Match : Phil won it for his leading of the line with James close behind
Dick of the Day : Gordon for the none too convincing penalty flicks ... but there again not too many players were rushing forward to take it under the pressure of a game situation

Captains Log 20020302

Another convincing win in the end but we made it harder than we needed to for much of the first half. Something that must be addressed this week at training or next week's crunch game against Amersham will be a damp squib. With James away next week and Chris also unavailable let's hope selection doesn't ruin our chances of promotion next week. Let's hope that results from elsewhere have gone our way as we maybe sitting in pole position - ie: win against Amersham and Wokingham and it might be enough to seal promotion. Its going to be hard as Amersham haven't lost a game all season - but we suspect that today they guaranteed promotion - so they may take the game a little easier than otherwise. Just two and a half hours of all out hockey to go and we may be in Div 1. Let's give it all we've got ....

Mens 5th XI

Mens Centurions

Ladies 1st XI

Teddington II 0 Staines 9

With Staines facing Teddington I in the Middlesex Cup Semi-Final they knew that this game against the second eleven would be a good game to win. Staines passed the ball around from the start and were playing some fantastic hockey. Goals came from Mel Attfield, Sue O'Connell (2), Alex Stacey (2) and Jo Ive during the first half to leave Staines 6 up at half time. A few changes to the team using the squad's strength meant that Ruth Hine could push up and leave only 2 at the back. The seventh goal came from a cross and a fantastic strike past the goal keeper by Lou Delaney. Mel Attfield and Alex Stacey both got another to take Staines' total to 9.

Ladies 2nd XI

Staines 9 - Mill Hill 0

For once getting up early on a Saturday morning was actually a pleasant experience with it being such a lovely sunny day. Although we have already won the league convincingly we still wanted to win this game in our usual stunning style. The game started off well with Julia Ward opening the usual goal rout after 5 minutes. Juliet Porter then keen on keeping her status of league top goal scorer, then made it 2 after 10 minutes. The goals then came at a rate of every 5 minutes in the first half, with Helen White, Lizzy O'Neill (scoring what had to be the goal of the day) and Helen Fisher all bagging one each. So at 6 - 0 up at half time, Staines were gunning for more goals. However, it took Staines almost 15 minutes to then start scoring again, but another one soon came from Alison Schomberg. Claire Holloway then added another one, from a cracking short corner hit. To round up the day nicely Julia Ward then scored another to make it 9 - 0. Anya, still without conceding a league goal all season, actually made 2 saves today, just so that she felt involved. Another great win for Staines and although they didn't score, once again it has to be said, how brilliant our defensive line up of Eryl, Caroline and Yvonne played. Another mention as well to Ellie ward, who although didn't score, created many chances from midfield for the goals to be scored. It also has to be added that Mill Hill's comment at the end of the match was "not only are you the best team we've played all season, but the nicest as well".

Ladies 3rd XI

Staines 8 Teddington 0

This was the result that Staines Ladies desperately needed as they are currently running joint top of division 3 with Sunbury, but unfortunately are well behind on goal difference. We have not worked out the precise stats but basically the pressure is on for the last 2 remaining league games and we have to win with loads of goals to stand a chance of going up as the 3rd and 4th teams are pecking at our heals.

Before the game had even started there was panic as Teddington had not been able to bring an umpire it was vital for us to play as we could not just accept a win with 2 goals awarded which is the standard points for a cancelled game. Luckily John Hardman had just returned from Oxford and could see the Ladies in distress so he forfeited his beer in front of the rugby and saved the day.

Now to the hockey, back from her 3 month tour in New Zealand we welcomed back Leigh Hill and Sarah Hamilton had managed to find a baby sitter so all of a sudden we had two Centre forwards! Staines started of slowly as the team took its time to gel, and by half time we were only 2 Nil up with goals from Leigh and Sarah. After a radical team talk by Captain, Kate Lemon, we decided on a new structure with 4 forwards, 2 mid field and the backs taking it in turn to push up. This worked very well and resulted in 2 goals from Jude Renton, and one a piece from Jo Smith, Linda McCormack, Sarah and Leigh. Kerry Burke worked hard on the wing and despite not scoring a goal herself was certainly a major part in the creation of 6.

The defence of Nick Laszlo, Pauline Williams, Wendy Valentine, Jeanette Tucker and Louise Clarke only made the team stronger and hence the difficult decisions on who to substitute and when it is not an easy choice but it is vital to have the squad for the team to go well. Oops and who can forget Sharon in goal who touched it once!

Players of the match were joint Kerry Burke, Linda McCormack and Jo Smith.

Ladies 4th XI