Southend Mens 2s 7 - 2 Redbridge & Ilford 2s
Southend started the season in fine style with a resounding victory against Redbridge and Ilford. Redbridge started strongly and it looked as if they would give Southend a tough game. However, after an initial onslaught, Southend took control and won comfortably.
The goals came from:
James Morgan 2 - Tap in, following a miss hit Arnold short corner and open goal following and Arnold pass and Druce "wonder reverse arial".
Marcus Watson - Tap in, following Arnold mucking up another short corner
Stuart Jones 2 - It took him all last season to score once and then like London buses he gets two in one game! The first was a great finish folowing a quick break and the 2nd was a fine hit into the bottom corner from the top of the "D" (we all know you were aiming for the top corner)
Puncher - Has learn't how to pass,duly got a return ball once he did, and neatly finished.
Arnold - Eventually scored one himself when lifting a ball over the keeper neatly to score.
A fine victory which surely bodes well for a fine season ahead.
Scorers - Morgan 2, Jones 2, Arnold, Watson, Puncher
Southend Mens 3s 4 - 1 Upminster
Southends 3rd XI got off to a positive pre-season start with a comfortable 4-1 win over Upminster. In a solid performance Phil Legget netted 3 times to get his first hat-trick of the season in his first game and half back James Lockwood made a rare soujourn into the D cracking a shot against the crossbar and netting the rebound as the ball came back to earth.
Scorers - Leggatt 3, J Lockwood
Southend and Benfleet Ladies 1s 1 - 0 Southend Ladies 2s
As the hockey season starts again our first game was against Southend Ladies 2nd XI, a friendly over at Warner’s Bridge. We expected Southend to put out a strong side; they turned up with 17 players. We had a committed 13 players available for the game. The challenge was on.
As well as starting the season with a new formation we also welcomed players from our 2nd team, Sarah Watkinson and Charlotte Rose to join the ladies 1st XI for the season. We also welcomed Nicola Standage who is Goal keeping for us whilst Lisa Ballard is out with injury to her knee, and also newcomer Kendal Colman who has come over from Rochford.
We started the game a little confused on new positions, playing too deep with no width but we settled down about 20 mins in when we started to find our space and shape. As ever Southend put out a strong attack from the start and we managed to hold them off for the first half.
In the second half the game became more exciting with Southend putting up a good defence until we were awarded a short corner. Nicola Bryant pushed out to Claire Powell at the top of the circle, unfortunately Claire was unable to make a shot on goal due to quick defending from Southend. The ball was deflected out to our right where Naomi Barker picked it up and pushed it clear to Hayley Middleton, Hayley then had a clear line through back to Claire who took a clean hit onto the back board, scoring 1 - 0.
Again Southend came back strong, getting frustrated and giving it their all. We defended well with some excellent saves from Nicola Standage preventing them from drawing level. With less than 30 seconds remaining we thought it was all over until Southend were awarded a short corner in the dying moments. We set up to defend the corner against Southends whole team who were now standing waiting to attack and even the score up. The corner pass was taken, the defence came out fast with a superb clearance from Kendal Colman, the whistle blew and we won 1 - 0. An excellent start to the season and well played by all.
Team: N Standage, S Watkinson, S Revell, R Goddard, A Johnson, G Swain, K Colman, L Sharples, N Bryant, C Rose, H Middleton, N Barker, C Powell, S Carr.
Goal Scorers: C Powell, 1
Southend and Benfleet Ladies 2s 2 - 0 Old Loughtonians 5s
Scorers - Brooks, Phillips |
