Following the 2-0 win against Bromley & Beckenham last week, Old Loughtonians were hoping to consolidate their position as Conference East league leaders against Hampstead & Westminster M2s who had also won last weekend. Loughts sprinted out of the blocks and were quickly one up. A short corner awarded in the second minute allowed Harvey Edwards to caress the ball with pace and craft into the net. In fact Loughts might have scored one or two more in that period but were denied by the Hampstead & Westminster keeper who parried the ball away on more than one occasion.

Captain Conor Caplan was on hand in the twenty first minute, after good approach work by Tom Watson, to place a delicate flick into the net. Loughts had begun to find space down the flanks against their opponents and were using it to good effect. Their opponents had also begun to find gaps in the home team defence by launching aerial balls into pockets of space. Fortunately they were invariably repelled by our defensive unit where George Lilley was having a storming game at the back.

At half time Coach Lee Ible stressed the need to remain solid and compact and to expect an onslaught. He was proven right and Hampstead came into the game in the third quarter and scored a deflected field goal. They had several very capable players who had begun to assert some influence of their own.

The returning crowd pleaser Josh Madeiros, now playing at Hampstead, had one surging run that nearly caught out the defence but Loughts held firm and the whole team knuckled down to weather the storm.

It was left to Watson to squeeze a third goal beyond the approaching keeper after a very fine run to settle the nerves. With nine minutes left on the clock, Hampstead’s response was to remove their keeper and create numerical on field advantage. Ed Fleet, the man with a cool head, marshalled the defence superbly to keep the opposition at bay.

Martyn Lear on his second game back had another way to protect our lead. With a deft and subtle touch he converted well after another Mark Loughrey surge into the penalty box.
Overall this was a very fine team performance. Loughts perhaps made it harder for themselves by not converting a string of early chances but remained focused and committed throughout. Next week Loughts travel to West Herts who also won this weekend for a Sunday fixture.

Old Loughtonians Ladies 1s cemented their place in the Top 4 of the East Area Premier League with a convincing 3-1 win over Sudbury. Loughts started at pace winning 4 penalty corners in the first 10 minutes but found the Sudbury keeper equal to a variety of routines.

Just before the break Loughts took control of the game with a fantastic passing move from back to front finding Laura Oglesby in the D who swept the ball into the top corner for one of the goals of the season. As the half came to a close Loughts won another penalty corner and this time Chloe Menear made no mistake to make it 2-0.

The second half was a cagey affair with Chloe Joarder and Chelsey Toms superbly marshaling the midfield and keeping Sudbury at bay. Loughts wrapped up the points with 16 minutes remaining with Chloe Menear producing a carbon copy of her first half penalty corner strike. Sudbury did pull a goal back but Loughts saw the game out to complete a fine 3-1 victory.
It was a very good day for the rest of the adult teams.
The ladies 2s drew 1-1 with league leaders Chelmsford 3s, the ladies 3s had a good 2-0 win against Basildon 3s with goals from Susy Harrison and Kayuki Sen, the ladies 4s won 3-1 against Brentwood 5s courtesy of goals from Ana Keogh, Rachel Campbell and Amelie Mackenzie and the ladies 5s won 2- against Chelmsford 7s.

Both the M2s and M3s scored 8 goals. The M2s won 8-1 away at Brentwood 1s with two goals each from Oli Davies and Toby Gayler and 1 from Josh Beardwell, Gabriel Inch, Matt Lewis and Rahul Karri. The M3s Foresters also played against first team opposition winning 8-0 against Redbridge & Ilford with the pick of the goals from Max Kempe and Charlie Britt.

The M4s Academy had a tough match against Havering 2s and lost 2-5 but the M5s Loppers again against a first team beat Romford 3-1 with David Gwynne scoring a fine hattrick. The M6s Willows, still to drop a point won 3-0 against Waltham Forest 4s with 2 goals from Rob Simmons and one from Phil Beauman but in the 2nd v 3rd match in the same division the M7s Willows Woodsmen lost narrowly 1-2 to Brentwood Academy to stay third. In the final match on Saturday the M9s Willows Axemen lost 0-3 to Old Southendians 6s.

On Sunday it was the turn of the colts starting with a 10.00 am fixture for the U18 boys away at Teddington. Despite the early start the boys swept aside Teddington with the third 8 goal haul winning 8-2 with goals from Harvey Edwards (4), Nathan Gladman (2), Archie Crowley and Oliver Hart. The boys u16s won 3-2 in the tier 1 league against Canterbury with goals from Luca Gormley, Caspian Coupe and James O’Malley Kumar but the girls u14s lost in the cup to Braintree Blue Hornets. The girls u16s were also in action having played very well to reach the semi finals of the EH Tier 1 Plate completion. At the final whistle it was 1-1 with London Wayfarers who ultimately reached the final on shuffles.