Match reports 4 February 2023

1’s v Guildford 1’s
0-4

Bishop’s Stortford resumed their National League campaign entertaining high flying Guildford at Beldam’s Lane last Saturday in what proved to be a hugely entertaining fixture. The visitors boasting three talented junior internationals, not to mention the very impressive Lucy Wood silver medalist with England at the 2004 Commonwealth Games, were soon in control taking a two goal lead, courtesy of a well worked short corner routine. Stortford Ladies, who had three National League debutants in Katherine Langridge, Clemmie Carr and Malli Came, were fielding possibly their youngest ever team with six players who had come through the ranks of their own Academy. The youngsters looked quite at home and their pace helped Stortford exert pressure that lead to five circle entries before half time but not one shot on goal materialised, and the visitors’  Welsh international ‘keeper had a trouble free afternoon.

The third quarter was the most competitive of the entire game as Stortford rallied well with Martha Hoult and Pearl Mason-Smith both making penetrating runs down the right and left flanks but the visitor’s defence held firm and the three penalty corners won by the Stortford forwards came to nought. Throwing caution to the wind Stortford thew everything into attack in the final stages of the game and were hit on the counter attack, the Surrey side scoring twice more and running out worthy winners.

Coach Nick Prowse was philosophical in defeat, ‘Against a very strong opposition our young team showed resilience and great determination throughout and at no stage did we feel outclassed. We must improve our penalty corner attack and defence but overall our performance gives us plenty of confidence as we tackle a series of challenging fixtures over the next weeks.’

2’s v Bedford 4’s
7-1

Stortford 2’s produced a dominant performance in a 7-1 away victory over basement side Bedford 4’s. The visitors got off to a quick start with early goals from Darcy Edwards, Charlie Leonard and Fiona Mulder, putting them in control of the match. With Stortford dominant and pressing high they were momentarily caught off guard at the back, a ball fired into the d by Bedford found a player unmarked who deftly took it round the keeper to make it 3-1 at the break.

Disappointed that their dominance hadn’t translated to more goals, Stortford set about the second half at pace. Edwards soon bagged her brace, before Minky Carr drilled a thunderous shot into the back post to make it five. Fiona Mulder added to her first half goal, completing her hat-trick with two more clinical finishes to make it seven. Bedford, to their credit, didn’t give up and kept the defence busy in the closing minutes, but Stortford were fully in control and saw out the game for a resounding win

A fantastic team effort from Stortford who dominated the match from start to finish, with joint player of the match performances from Mille Andrews and Lottie Lynch.. With other results going in their favour, the win sees them open up an eight point lead at the top. A potential tough match ahead of Stortford this weekend as they take on local rivals Saffron Walden, who’ve been quietly climbing the table over the last few weeks.

3’s v Berkhamstead & Hemel 2’s
4-0

An excellent team performance from the ladies 3xi winning 4-0 at home to Berko & Hemel. The home side applied pressure from the start with the visitors making some valiant saves off their goal line. However after 7 minutes Jemma Pettit volleyed home the first of Stortford’s goals. A few minutes later Jen Pearce made an excellent run but was floored by the goalkeeper, Jemma Pettit hoovered up the loose ball played it through to Jen (who had regained her feet by this point) who put it away for the home sides second goal. After half time the visitors came out with renewed vigour but the midfield of Suzy Fletcher, Katy Motson, Lizzie Motson, Ali Chadwick, Freya Sweeney and Lydia Seleska closed them down as soon as they received the ball making them play the ball backwards and make mistakes. Stortford were soon rewarded with an attacking short corner which Jen Pearce hammered into the bottom left corner of the goal. The visitors again tried to increase the intensity but the defence of Caitlin Wooton, Eryn Foote, Lydia Thomas & Thea Came remained calm and composed on the ball. Last weeks player of the match Issy Good made some lovely runs up front and picked up some lovely reverse stick balls. One of these came into D and the keeper saved it only for Suzy Fletcher to hammer it home from the top of the D for the home sides 4 goal of the day. This keeps BSHC L3s at the top of Div 3SW.

Archdeaconesses v Royston 1
3-0

The Archdeaconesses travelled to Cambridge to play against a very young Royston team.

The game was pretty evenly matched at the beginning, but the ADs’ experience started to show and, at around 10 minutes into the game, the first goal came. A deflected shot from Pilar Montu, just inside the D, rebounded off the inside post where Hannah Wynne was perfectly positioned to take advantage and knocked the ball in. 

Royston threatened a couple of times, and were quick on the break, but the strong defence kept them at bay. 

The second goal – around three quarters of the way into the first half – came from a brilliantly worked pass into the D, received beautifully by Kess Levy just inside, she moved the ball on and then passed it across to Elizabeth Reay, who was unmarked, and calmly tapped it into the goal.  

The score was 2v0 half time and the ADs were buoyant going into the second half. 

Again, brilliant team work led to the final goal – starting with a free hit from Helen Parry in the right defensive position, the ball was passed around the back to the left hand side of the pitch with some nice short passes into the D, where Zoe Barford took the shot and scored. 

Another win came from a great team effort. The final score: 3v0.

Ladies 5’s v Royston
8-0

5s were playing at home against Royston who were 2nd from the bottom of the table. Stortford went out strong with no complacency, with a viable shot opportunity in the first minute! There was some lovely work in the midfield from Sophie, Meg, Nadia and Claire with some good passing. However, Royston managed to get a few breakthroughs but Stortford bounced back with Laura scoring the first goal. 6 minutes in Stortford were on the attack again with another fabulous goal from Laura. We were off to a terrific start in the first half and managed to get a short corner with Yolande converting it with a strong hit sadly though she didn’t bring it outside of the D so it was disallowed. 18 minutes in and wanting to get a goal Yolande turns and scores a goal from another short. Stortford who were on a roll at this point secured another goal, this time from Vicky who tapped it in and received a lovely pass from Nadia. Just before the end of the first half Alice passed the ball to Yolande who deflected it in. 

Royston got off to a strong start in the second half but Stortford regained possession and got a short corner, unluckily we couldn’t convert it this time around. Zöe had a strong shot on goal but it went wide. Royston determined to score broke through into our 25, Liv, Alana and Claire P held them up though and Freya made a wonderful save. Alice and Claire quickly made their way back up the pitch, leading to a shot on goal by Alice that almost hit Yolande on the head. Sophie took a free hit and passed to Zoë who slammed it in. After another scramble in the D, Laura pops the ball into the goal. Determined to get another few more goals before full-time Laura fought her way through and after a scramble, Zoë poked it in.  The final score was 8-0 a win for 5s. POM Yolande. 

L5s continue their undefeated season, retaining their position at top of the league, 8 points clear and with a magnificent 63 GD! 

Great teamwork from all of the ladies.

Acolytes v Havering
2-3

The Acolytes were playing away this weekend in a tricky encounter with 4th place Havering. The weather was unexpectedly cold and so was the start from the Blues. Within 2 minutes, Havering took advantage of a defensive mixup and scored. After the restart Stortford got the ball up the pitch but were unable to take advantage. Havering attacked again and some great keeping from Liz helped hold them back. However they were not to be denied and successive D entries by the opposition yielded another goal. The third came after a cross D clearance didn’t execute cleanly leaving the Blues 3 down.
The 6s recovered their composure and some good midfield play by Liz, Beth and Léa moved the ball high. Charlie shot just wide and Marni forced a save. Soon after Marni won a short and a well worked move was just turned wide at the right post by Charlie. There was more good pressure but no reward as the half drew to close.

An excellent half time talk from Naomi put the situation in perspective. The half started brightly and soon resulted in a short. Although the move broke down, Marni worked it back in with Sully finding the backboard. Havering responded well which meant that the defence were under pressure again. Good work from Emma, Naomi and especially PoM, Catherine, kept the excellent attack out. Havering were aggressive and a series of body checks, stick tackles and assorted personal fouls went unpunished until Léa was sent flying in mid field like a clean bowled cricket stump.
It wasn’t long before the Umpire was speaking to Stortford players who were “expressing their frustration”. There were great performances: defensively from Kim and up front by Sully and Izzy. The pressure from the Blues was good but equalled by Havering. As the minutes ticked down Mary forced a great save from the Havering keeper. With only about 10 minutes to play Naomi called for attacking play by all as there was nothing to lose. Emma playing defence found herslef in the attacking D and forced a short corner which Izzy converted leaving it 3-2. Sadly, the final whistle was blown seconds after the restart, consigning the blues to their first defeat of the season. However, they should be proud of the excellent second half performance which shows what they are capable of.

9’s v Luton Town 2’s
4-0

Bishops Stortford Ladies 9s won a great 4-0 victory this week against the visitors,  Luton 2s.  The 9s have continued to improve across the season, either winning games  or improving their first round results.   The first goal came from Liz Teale (back from injury) in the 18th minute, this was the only goal of the 1st half, however Stortford had over 80% of the attacking play, with the visitors struggling to get into Stortford’s D.

The 2nd half continued in the same vein, with goals from Kate Barham in the 41st minute and another 2 minutes later from young midfielder Lily Shillito 2 minutes later, her 1st goal for Stortford as she usually plays in defence.  The visitors were very frustrated in having any attacks blocked by the 9s midfield and defence.  The 9s final goal came in the 50th minute from Sophie Barc.  A great performance from the 9s.  A particular mention for Lily Shillito (player of the match) and Nula Boston who played midfield roles,  where they both usually play in defence.  They rose to the occasion and played a great game.

M1’s V Broxbourne 1’s
6-4

Goals Rich Heywood x 4, Jack Wheaton, Craig Smith

Stortford Men’s 1s hosted Broxbourne at home in a must-win clash against top of the league rivals.

Both teams got off to a good start, with Stortford getting most of the chances, which eventually paid off when Ross Butler picked up a wayward defensive pass from Broxbourne, and found Rich Heywood with a lovely reverse pass who deflected the ball in.  It remained advantage  Stortford  when, again after picking a nice aerial ball, Ross Butler found Rich Heywood on the front post who slotted it in to make it 2-0.

Feeling comfortable, Stortford took their foot of the gas and allowed Broxbourne 3 goals and ended up going in at half time 3-2 down. 

In the second half, the pain continued and Stortford ended up 4-2 down after another Broxbourne goal.  Things got worse as Stortford lost Al Hall to injury and Jeff Dummet took a knock. 

Against the run of play, Stortford converted nice short corner with Jack Wheaton finding Rich Heywood on the far post.

From here Stortford continued with the pressure when a really nice move ended with Rich Heywood getting tripped in the D and then popping in the penalty flick to make it 5-4. 

Finally, Stortford got a short corner in the last 5 minutes, from which Jack Wheaton found Craig Smith on the back post who deflected it past the keeper giving Stortford a 2 goal lead.

Stortford managed to see out the last few minutes to keep the score at 6-4 to keep the top of the league spot after a brilliant effort from the boys.

M2’s v Bedford 3’s
0-3

Stortford Mens 2s travelled to league title challengers Bedford 3s with a minimum 11 players.  Despite the odds being stacked against them, the team put on a dogged display, but ended up on the end of a 3-0 loss.  Bedford have scored a lot to goals this season, so the visitors took a lot of pride from the days work. 

M3’s v St Alban’s 4
4-0

After dropped points last weekend against Blueharts, Stortford 3s needed 3 points against top of the table St Albans to keep their promotion hopes alive. Stortford started quickly, dominating the first quarter, winning multiple short corners but were unable to break the deadlock. It took until the 20^th minute where good work from Ollie Leonard down the right, found Fred Cooke in the D, who unselfishly found Matt Pike who beat the keeper to make it 1-0. Stortford went into half time 1-0 up, however knew it could have been more. The second half started as the first had finished, with Stortford dominating all facets of the game. It wasn’t long until Leonard found a foot in the D, which Mike Landolt converted with a drag flick. A third came soon after from another short corner, which was slipped to Robin Sutton who found the bottom left corner. A dominating display from Stortford, with Taylor excellent in defence, and Ollie Leonard putting a man of the match performance in.  

M6 v Bedford 6
5-0

Bishops Stortford Men’s 6 XI returned to winning ways with a comprehensive 5-0 win over Bedford at home on Saturday. From the first whistle there was a strong press upfront, getting into the opposition’s ‘D’ and showing a clear intent to get early shots on goal. The pressure paid off midway through the first half, opening a sleuth of goals from Haitel Patel, Joe Clune, Duncan Laws and Jim Tatchell, the latter going onto add another goal in the second half. Tired legs started to tell in the last 20 mins, providing the opposition their first real threats on the Stortford goal. However good use of the bench and flexibility of all players to move around different positions meant that a good tempo and pressure could be sustained right until the very end. There were some stand out individual performances with Simon Fox and Freddy Taylor having very strong games in the midfield and upfront respectively, and Ross Howarth remaining very solid in defence. POTM was given to Charlie Tucker for a great effort both in midfield and upfront, causing the opposition plenty of difficulties and setting up a number of our goals. On the back of that performance the team will travel to St Albans next weekend hoping to avenge a 4-0 loss to their men’s 9 XI earlier in the season.