Match reports 5 November 2022

Ladies 1’s v Horsham 1’s
2 – 2
Vitality Conference East

Late drama at Horsham sees Stortford Ladies secure first point of the season. 

Stortford Ladies made a flying start in their National League game at Horsham last Saturday and on the front foot and dominating possession during the first period they deservedly took the lead when Liz Egan scored from a penalty corner in the fifth minute. Horsham equalised with a well taken goal, but the impressive Kate Robinson, with a reverse stick shot from the top of the circle,  skilfully deflected into goal by Abbie Barrett, restored Stortford’s advantage at half time. Midway through the second half Horsham equalised and for much of the final quarter it was the home side that dominated possession but with dogged determination, the visitors’ defence held out through tense final minutes where only a brilliant save by Alison Martyn from a penalty flick secured the draw. 

Assistant Coach Mark Surridge said, ‘it was an exciting game of hockey, full of high quality skills, great commitment from both sides and plenty of thrills right up to the very last minute. Our captain Katie Richards marshalled the defence brilliantly and we looked very secure for much of the game. After such a promising start it was disappointing we didn’t threaten as much in the second half when we allowed Horsham back into the game. But it’s a relief to get our first point on the board, and special mention in our battling display goes to our keeper Alison Martyn. 

‘We have played plenty of good hockey this season and been ahead in four of our six fixtures but we have been unable to get over the line. We’ve been plagued by injuries that hasn’t helped matters but the squad is working very hard in training and we are improving all the time”

Ladies 2’s v Welwyn 1
3 – 0
East Division 2 South West

Stortford extended their unbeaten start to the season to six games with a comfortable 3-0 home win against Welwyn Garden City 

Two first half goals from Dutchie saw the match pretty much wrapped up as a contest by half time. The first, with her back to goal, saw Dutch pounce on a loose ball from a defenders foot, hitting on the turn into the bottom left corner.  The lead was doubled minutes before half time, Nicky driving towards the ‘d’ heard a shout from Dutchie to pass, who made no mistake, deflecting home for her second. 

Despite the lead, there was no room for complacency in the second half, a quick break and Welwyn could have been back in it. So Stortford started hard, playing the ball around the pitch and enjoying long periods of pressure. Great play from the teenage dream team of Darcy and Lottie, roared on by player of the match Ro. They were soon rewarded, Nicky hitting a beautiful shot off the back foot that went like a firework through a crowd of players, and found it’s way into the back of the goal.

Welwyn offered very little in attack, the Stortford defence were largely untroubled and were able to push high up the pitch. To their credit, Welwyn were difficult to break down at the back, the score should have been a lot higher but thanks to a solid defence and good goalkeeping they kept the score down.   

Six wins out of six and two points clear at the top, Stortford travel to Berkhamsted and Hemel on Saturday hoping to keep the winning streak going. They’ll have to cope with the loss of Chucks for the next few weeks as she’ll be waking up in Vegas,

Ladies 3’s v Archdeaconesses (L4)
0-2
East Division 3 South West

A top of the table clash in div 3SW for the ladies 3xi versus the Archdeaconesses. A tough game saw the Archdeaconesses go in at half time 1-0 up after Zoe Barford had been given too much space at the top of the D. In the 2nd half it was end to end play with both teams being rewarded with short corners. Unfortunately it was the Archdeaconesses that managed to hit the backboard. The ladies 3s surged forward with player of the match Jen Pearce dodging her way through the defence to force Lianne Warnell to make a cracking save to keep the away team off the scoreboard. In the dying seconds the ladies 3s won another short corner but failed to make it count.

Archdeaconesses v L3’s
2-0
East Div 3 South West

A home game for the ADs against BS 3s. An inter-club derby match, there was a lot of pride at stake. 

ADs got off to a good attacking start with some shots on goal from Zoe who managed to score around mid-way through the first half. BS 3s fought back but the ADs defence of Lori, Ros, Rachael and Kes remained strong, as ever. Lianne made a couple of good saves and the ADs went into half time 1-0 up. 

The second half was much of the same – end to end play. The deciding goal came in the second half when a short corner – taken by Zoe to Pippa – then pinged around a little before Lisa took the opportunity to secure the win with a fantastic reverse stick shot on goal. 

Shortly after the second goal, Rachael got caught by the ball in the middle of the forehead, after it took a deflection from a 16 hit out. Such a shame as she was having an amazing game in defence. With quite a bad gash she had to leave the pitch and was taken to A&E to be patched up. We wish her all the best and hope she doesn’t have to miss too many matches because of it.

A controversial, but well deserved win, sees the ADs remain at the top of the table – 6 points clear.

Ladies 5’s v Welwyn 3’s
10-1
East Division 5 South West

Ladies 5’s were away at Welwyn. The game started off quite even but stortford quickly settled into the game and won a short corner around 8 minutes in. A great strike from Charlotte T from the top of the D was converted by Meghan, with a lovely deflection on the post. With a goal under our belt, 5’s continued to put pressure on Welwyn.

The last 10 minutes of the first half was very exciting seeing Stortford score 3 goals.  The first by Jess, 4 minutes later Meghan put the ball past the keeper and then 4 minutes after that it was Nadia’s turn to get on the scoresheet, in her debut match for ladies 5s! 

Stortford went into half time very happy with our performance. With a few suggestions of things to improve on amongst the team they went back on for the second half.

Some lovely passing play meant it didn’t take long for the goals to continue, within 5 minutes Laura struck the ball beautifully in the D, resulting in another goal.  Then less than a minute later it was Charlotte Smith’s turn to score, following a pass in the D from Laura.  

49 minutes in and Stortford won another short corner, up stepped Charlotte T again and with an injection from Charlotte S she converted the goal in the bottom right hand corner. 

Laura was not content with the 1 goal and continued to push forward and at 54 minutes she bagged her second.

1 minute later Stortford were back on the attack and won another short corner. There was no question about how it was going to be taken, up stepped Charlotte T again who as always was calm and collected, she received the ball and again struck it beautifully, sending it into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. 

Stortford continued to push forward and didn’t give up, despite being way ahead we were just thinking of our goal difference. Some lovely passing play up the pitch continued to make it hard for Welwyn to get possession of the ball. 

6 minutes later Stortford won another short corner, we decided to stick with what was working. In the same way as the other 2 short corners, Charlotte T converted her 3rd goal from the top of the D taking Stortford into double figures!  

Unfortunately Stortford got caught off guard by playing too high towards the end and with some lovely play by Welwyn, they put the ball into the back of the goal.  In the last minute of the match Welwyn won their first short corner, this resulted in the whole team coming up to attack! The Defenders, Liv, Alana, Vicky and Claire and GK Freya got ready for the Welwyn attack. Claire ran 1 and managed to stop the straight strike, the ball was safely cleared away by the defenders and we finished the game with a 10-1 win. 

POM was Charlotte T for her amazing short corner goals! 

Ladies Acolytes (6’s) v Brentwood
6-0
East Division 5 South East

The trip to Brentwood proved tricky for some with the game starting before the final two players arrived. Brentwood pressured first forcing a short corner. Lis marshalled the defence well and pressure was relieved. After that it was one way traffic for the blues. Some defensive interventions from Gemma Leach and Catherine Clune forcing the ball high and the first goal came as Marni’s initial flick was saved but she recovered with a fabulous reverse effort.

More pressure resulted in Jo Newman getting Stortford’s second.

A few minutes later, Catherine pushed it up to Scout who played havoc with the defence, moved it to Marni who got a deflected second goal to make it 3-0 at half time.

The second half brought more of the same either distributing to both Charlie and Izzy with shots resulting.

An excellent move involving Jo moving it to Mel resulted in Marni’s hat trick with a fantastic turn in on the left post.

Soon after, Léa then forced a short corner which was really well worked giving Marni a fourth goal and this secured her well deserved Player of the Match award.
The final goal was secured by Charlie and there was only one more bit of action where Brentwood troubled the D but Lis shepherded the ball safely away. Great win for the top of the table Acolytes.

Mens 2’s v Welwyn Garden City 1
3 – 1
East Division 2 South West

BSHC Mens 2s registered their second win of the season at home WGCs Mens 1s.  Despite losing a first choice centre back during the warm up, a dominant defensive display kept WGC attacks to a minimum in the first half, with crisp passing and strong movement resulting in many attacks for the home side.  Aaron Watts put away the first goal with a neatly taken finish in a congested ‘D’ to get the home side off to a strong start.   This lifted the confidence of the team to continue to push forward, but maintaining discipline to protect possession and frustrate the opposition.  In particular Miles Lax-Tanner and Adam Champion passed well down the left flank.  A penalty corner was smashed home by Mike Taylor to put BSHC 2-0 up at the break.  

It was more of the same in the second half as Stortford enjoyed the majority of possession, despite the skills and distribution of the WGC centre midfielders.  Mike Taylor smashed a second penalty corner which sent line defenders to the floor.  WGC pulled a goal back and had a number of penalty corners, but were kept well at bay.  MOM Mike Taylor narrowly missed out on a hat-trick, but took a lot of confidence from his performance, as did the whole team.

3’s v Southgate Adelaide 1

5-1
East Division 3 South West

Stortford had a very strong team for the late start against Southgate, and were looking to keep up momentum after last weeks 5-0 win. Stortford started brightly, with good control in the middle from Mike Landolt and a very strong defence. After 15 minutes, Jake Anders grabbed the first goal after reacting quickly to a rebound off the keeper. Not long after, Toby Warnes fired in a ball into the D which was spectacularly deflected by Ossie Bannister to make it 2-0. 

The second half started as the first finished with Stortford dominating possession. Landolt scored two quick goals, to make it 4-0, before Southgate grabbed one back after a counter-attack left Stortford with a 4 v 2 at the back. Stortford regained composure, and Landolt secured his second-half hat trick to make it 5-1. Man of the Match – Mike Landolt.