Ramagarhia 4 - 3 Southend 1st XI
"Ramargarhia, ah bless 'em!"
Well, you sort of know what you are going to get when you play them and I like to think of it as a unique challenge. You know when you play that the following are likely:
Its not going to be 0 - 0
There will be cards
Someone will be called a racist
Someone playing for Ramagarhia will manage to dribble around the whole team
The umpires will have to warn the people on the sidelines and tell them to shut up
The umpires will warn everyone to shut up
We will have cheese sandwiches
So, we turned up at the Warren for the usual 4 o'clock start and the Captain delivered his usual Ramargarhia team talk "Make sure we start fast as if we score early they will all get on at each other and then we'll win easily. Don't let them get confident by scoring an early goal."
The game started and the Ramagarhia fella waltzed around the whole team and scored. 30 seconds gone, one nil down, all of the opposition happy and in a good mood - GREAT!!!!!
After that the game went to plan and we got back into it, usual sort of game they scored, we scored, they argued, we argued. Our goals came from Leggett, with a goal from much farther than his usual yard, a fine effort from 2 yards and Essex star Chris Crowhurst with 2, one a fine deflection and the other a lucky finish through and over the keeper.
And then came the Axeman.............
Dave Robeson then decided the match by passing straight to their centre forward and wielding his stick like an Axe (he claimed he got some of the ball) to hack down their player leaving Andy "the Racist" Poulain no choice but to award a short corner and a yellow card to Robeson. Ramagarhia, obviously disgusted by the decision to send off the Southend player for fouling their bloke well outside the "D"!, then argued with Andy "the Racist" Poulain but managed to keep their composure and score from the short corner. 4 - 3 to them and one minute to go. D'oh!
The ever popular Robeson won the Burberry suit with his match winning tackle and scampered off into the night so he didn't have to wear it (We'll get you next week).
Match verdict
Ramagarhia - "You're umpire's a racist, we should have had at least 2 penalty flicks - (I used to play national league you know so I know what i'm talking about)"
Southend - "Robeson's gonna get it when we get to the clubhouse. It's all his fault. They should have had about 8 yellow cards. The cheese sandwiches were nice."
See you at fortress Canvey.
Team - Christie, Styles Snr, Mellish, Hayman, P Harvey, Robeson, Utton, Leggett, Crompton, Crowhurst, Styles Jnr, Arnold.
Goals - Crowhurst 2, Leggett
Southend 2nd XI 2 – 3 Harlow 1st XI
Goalscorer(s): Jones & Morgan
Despite Southend’s first defeat of the season they continue to lead the table by 5 points from Chelmsford with Harlow a further 2 points back.
Its been 6 days since this defeat and not having written this match report earlier can now only vaguely remember the events of that afternoon (unfortunately for Polo (“The Goalkeeper with a Hole”) some remain crystal clear.
I seem to recall that the home team started quite brightly, scoring within 5 minutes from a well worked penalty corner, Druce sliding in a ball to the near post for young Jones to score. In fact Harlow were already down to 10 men by then after the umpire (yes, you Andy) had adjudged one of the defenders of deliberately stopping the ball with his foot in the D. This lead was short-lived though and within 10 minutes Southend were amazingly 3-1 down. Defensive indecision, an excellent flick from the top of the D (albeit from a dubiously awarded penalty corner) and a horrendous howler by the keeper (letting the ball roll gently into an unguarded net because……………………………………………over to you Mike?) were the culprits.
Stung into action and with Marcus Watson astutely adjusting the defence, Southend fought back, with James “International Ginge understudy” Morgan reducing the deficit before half-time (sorry Ginge, can’t remember your goal at all). The 2nd half saw Southend dominate without creating too many clear goalscoring chances, although a few penalty corners would have been nice! Harlow threatened only in flashes through the lively Shearman-Slack.
Druce once again departed early through hamstring injury to be replaced by the ever maturing James Lockwood. It was too late to make an impact on the game but enough to reinforce his blossoming talent. Stuart Jones once again ran his socks off with no little skill to boot (keep it trapped though young man. Take you mark from the skipper and Gavin!!!).
Old De Ferrians beware, we don’t like losing.
Team: M Scott, L Danbrook, M Watson, J McPhee, J Etheridge, G Cheeseman, K Druce, S Jones, B Puncher, J Morgan, G Hastings, J Lockwood
Southend 3rd XI 1 - 4 University of Essex
Once again injury ravaged 3's efforts couldn't salvage a result against stiff Essex University opposition this week. Southend competed in every position but the young university sides fitness and unity was the separator between the sides in the end.
Southend started well enough moving the ball confidently and defending solidly throughout the first half. Southend even had a chance to go one up when John Evans broke away from a Des White clearance - this time however the keeper was equal to Johns low strike smothering the shot and clearing wide. You couldn't help feeling that Southend taking the lead at that point would surely have changed the end result but it was not to be.
It was then Essex who broke the deadlock 10 minutes from the end of the first half and with the score at 1-0 Southend decided to go all out for at least a share of the points. However with the game more stretched holes opened up allowing Essex to net a second 8 minutes into the second half from the third shot following a short corner.
Southend struck back 5 minutes later when Matt Daws shot / cross hit the post and was followed in by Dave White. Southend pushed again for an equaliser but time was running out - in the last 5 minutes Essex scored twice more to give an end 4-1 result that in no way reflected Southends part in the game.
Two more game to go before the season breaks fro Christmas - and the threes need some consistency in the side to start playing the hockey they were capable of before these injuries and unavailability's hit.
Southend & Benfleet Ladies 1st XI 2 - 1 Southend Ladies
Again, another difficult game and after beating Southend in a friendly pre-season we new that they would be after the points for our league game.
We had a full team with two subs and were well prepared for a tough challenge.
A quick start and both teams were trying to dominate early on, lucky enough for us we managed to get an early goal by Naomi Barker from a short corner deflection within the first 15 minutes.
Southend came back at us again and the play for the first half was very scrappy and central, both us and Southend struggled to find the width across the pitch so passing was short and intercepted easily. Southend were awarded three short corners in a row and failed to score but unfortunately managed to get a sneaky goal about five minutes before half time. Again it was one of those that crept pass everyone and we all stood and stared in amazement. Oopps!!!
Second half proved to be the better half for us we opened up the play and used the width and our players wisely. We had the majority of the possession and had about 15 attempts on goal but all were saved, until our persistence paid off and a Southend player stopped the ball from going into the goal by putting her foot on the line behind her stick and holding it off. A Penalty Flick was awarded to us. Claire Powell stepped up not to dissapoint and buried one away giving us the 2-1 lead. Southend were not happy and fought hard again for the last 10 minutes. But we were just too good on the day and walked away with the victory. A fantastic effort by everyone, well played.
Team: L,Ballard. S,Revell. R,Goddard. G,Swain. A,Johnson. S,Watkinson. K,Colman L,Sharples. N,Bryant C,Rose. H,Middleton. C,Powell. N,Barker.
Goal Scorers: C,Powell 1 N,Barker 1
Barker and Powell issued a joint statement after the game. "A lot of people said after last weeks game that the Captain should pick Lora up front but we believe that we are the main two strikers and I think todays performance proved it. We've both scored a lot of goals this season and we are the top partnership. Hopefully now we can put all this rubbish talk about playing Lora as a striker to bed once and for all"
FIRST ROUND VASE GAME
12.00pm Push Back at Passmores School
Southend & Benfleet 0 - 1 Harlow
An early meet after a late night for some, Bacon and Sausage sandwiches at the Weir and the only 12 available players in the entire ladies club.
After wins by both teams on the Saturday we were decided to take whatever gets thrown at us for the Sunday. We knew that Harlow were a premiership side and well, it wasn’t going to be easy.
The host team turned up 20 minutes before we were due to push back after we had been standing around in the cold weather for nearly 40 minutes. We started late and gave it our all.
They were a tough side but nothing fancy…bit like ourselves really. Possession was mainly ours in the first 15 minutes so not a bad start. Harlow were awarded a short corner which the defence done well to clear but soon realised that they had a tough hitter at the top. A few more were awarded and again denied. Excellent strength from the defence.
At half time it was clear that they were easily riled and the score was still nil nil.
The second half seemed even harder and toward the end of it both teams were showing signs of flaking. Southend had more possession in this half and had a handful of shots on goal all saved well by their keeper unfortunately. There was also an unfortunate incident involving Claire Powell in which she ended up worse off with finger marks on her neck, a yellow card and ten minutes off, with the other player admitting Claire was not to blame. Maybe that’s a fine example of where the rules fail the players. We were down to ten men and still would not give up. Soon after we were awarded a penalty flick but with our flicker on the side line Lora Sharples had a go, the ball was saved and the whistle for full time went a minute later.
The game went to 7.5 minutes either way with golden goal ending it all or penalty flicks till there was a winner. Claire was allowed back on three minutes into the first half of extra time. Now there was almost a desperation by both teams to bury the other. We played that half, turned it around again and Harlow really were going to desperate measures to take the cheap goal. Players were deliberately stopping balls just to give enough time to reform. Harlow got the only goal of the game when our keeper was down and the ball was underneath her, a cheap tactic by hacking down the arm of the keeper to score the goal. Not really a fair game by a team who were one division above us and who should have been able to beat us fairly.
And then on a wet day with people injured there were no changing facilities and we ended up changing in the car park. Well Hosted by Harlow - Thanks very much!!!!
Team: L,Ballard. S,Revell. R,Goddard. L,Sharples. N,Bryant H,Middleton. C,Powell. C,Baker. D,Fletcher. C,Harris. K,Frend. S,Chandler.
Southend and Benfleet Ladies 2nd XI 2 - 0 Basildon Ladies
The 2nd team won 2 - 0 with both goals coming from Claire King. |
