Hockey from the weekend 10/10
Posted by Nobody on 4 November 2015
Old Loughtonians Mens 1s started this game as the top team in the league, unbeaten in three matches and with a strong defensive record. Cambridge City had shown strong signs of being more than a match, having narrowly lost out to title hopefuls Wapping in the last round of matches.
The match began with Loughts dominating possession and having the lion’s share of chances. However, it was Cambridge City who broke the deadlock not long before half time. A well-earned short corner for Loughts broke down leading to a rapid breakaway by the Wilberforce Road Club. Cambridge City’s short corner routine proved deadly with a well-placed drag flick finding the very bottom corner of goalkeeper Fred Whitfield’s goal. At half time Loughts felt rightly aggrieved at the score line, having had the vast majority of the possession and chances.
The second half was much the same story. After a torrid first 10 minutes Cambridge City snaffled up a rebounded chance to make it 2-0. With sustained appeals for an offensive foot from the Loughts defenders, there was some dispute over the validity of the goal; but after a lengthy discussion between the umpires a goal was nevertheless awarded. Loughts shook off a poor spell to regain control of possession and began to string a series of good plays together. Their hard work was finally rewarded. Tom Wilson started the move off from the half way line with a deftly weighted ball to Mitch Jones who drove the ball into the Cambridge D. Jones returned the ball to Wilson who skilfully cut along the baseline and placed a perfect pass on the grateful stick of young talent, Will Hopkins, for his first goal of the season.
Despite continued pressure and a series of short corners, which looked set to see OLHC level the scores, they were unable to do so and the match finished 2-1 to Cambridge. Loughts will look on this as an important building block for the season. Old Loughts full back Robert Bloss was clearly disappointed with the defeat, but looked to the positives: ‘We will look back on this as a key moment in our season. We will be training hard this week to make sure we are back to winning ways.’
Loughts will look to return to winning ways against Blueharts at 16:00 at home this coming Saturday.
The Ladies 1s were away at St. Albans on Saturday and through a tough game held the St Albans 2s to a 0-0 draw. With some unlucky misses at goal they were unfortunate not to put one away, while their defensive unit gave the St Albans side no space to attack in to. The whole team worked hard throughout and will look for success next week at home against Harleston Magpies.
