Supervets Warm Up!

Well played for an excellent 2 – 0 win on Saturday! The played with a good structure throughout and apart from the first 10 or 15 minutes (where they were slow to get going), generally controlled the game against a very good Tulse Hill team who are top of the Supervets division two.

In addition, they did not give away too many sloppy passes and the running to support players in attack and also to defend was very good.

This week they have a very important game against Chelmsford, at home at 2:30 pm.  Whilst Chelmsford are not having a great season, it would be foolish to under estimate their abilities and we will need to play with similar discipline and conviction to get a good result.

Willows on fire

A floodlit 4:30pm start in dark chilly Newport, with precious little time for a warm up after the previous match ran over, and the thermometer was beginning to drop.  The home captain asked if we could start promptly, to avoid the match potentially having to be abandoned through frost.  He needn’t have worried – from the first whistle the Willows burned up the pitch.

Ten minutes of constant pressure finally broke through the Saffron Walden defence, with Jacob “Hat-Trick” Jayaraj tomahawking a fine long-distance shot into the top corner.  From then on, the dam was broken and the goals came clattering in as a strong Willows squad found their confidence against our bottom-of-the-table opponents.     

A variety of colourful early Christmas cards were generously distributed by the umpires, including a festive green to Rob “Don’t forget to mention my hat-trick too” Simmons and two of varying hues (a new record, even by his standards) to Brett “Where did you get those most attractive spectacles?” Sicklin.

I had asked for double figures in the group chat before the game and the lads didn’t disappoint.  Eleven-nil shoots us back to the top of the table, two points clear and with a game in hand.   The score was amazing, but even better was the genuinely mature play.   Short, deft passing and constant running off the ball to create space for those passes set a template for us to follow for the rest of the season.   The youngsters all gave selfless performances, even passing around and within the D as well as providing far-post deflection opportunities; and the adults – to a man –produced head-up intelligent close-support play to generate easily the most effective Willows outing of the season.   (The only exception being our poor frozen goal-keeper, El Toro, who apparently didn’t touch the ball from first to last whistle.)

One more game before the mid-season break and we need a win to cement our position.  Time for some festive cheer – let’s go pull another cracker!

Results 2nd December

Men                                                                              Ladies

1s v No Game                                                               1s v St Albans                           1 - 2

2s v Hampstead & Westminster 5 - 0                            2s v Chelmsford 2                     3 - 1

3s v Kings Alleyns 2                  3 - 5                             3s v County Wanderers             5 - 1

Supervets v Tulse Hill                2 - 0                             4s v Colne                                 1 - 2

Academy v Havering                  3 - 1                            5s v Southend & Benfleet 3       1 - 4

Loppers v Thurrock 2                  12 - 0

Willows v Saffron Walden           11 - 0

                       

GK Training

There will be no GK training this evening due to unforeseen circumstances.                              

Christmas Jumpers and Quiz Night                                                                            

As a reminder this Friday, 8th December, we are holding a quiz in the clubhouse to give people the opportunity to show off their latest Christmas jumper as well as their general knowledge.  £5 per person will buy you an evenings entertainment, a mince pie, mulled wine and some nibbles as well as make a donation towards the Tom Wilson Memorial Fund.  Tickets are available from the bar or can be ordered and paid for by a phone call to the office on 02085044010.  All purchases must be made by Wednesday to ensure the event goes ahead.

I Look forward to hearing from you