Loughts ladies first team completed a 4-0 double over Ipswich-East Suffolk matching their early season victory in Suffolk in Saturday’s encounter at Luxborough Lane. Only 6 minutes had passed when Chantelle Fernandez and Katie Gleeson combined nicely to find Lucy Price who guided the ball home on her reverse.

Ipswich proved to be tough to break down however Loughts Player of the Match Chelsey Toms was peerless in the middle of the park breaking up play and launching dangerous counter attacks. It took Loughts until 3 minutes after the break to extend their lead with Stevie Southall setting Emily Holmes clear on goal who beat the advancing keeper with a nerveless finish.

In the last 10 minutes Loughts domination translated into 2 further goals with Emily grabbing her second of the game with a powerful strike from close range to make it 3-0. Captain Tash Patient then rounded off the scoring as she smashed the ball home from a very acute angle with great style. Next week they are away at St Albans.

The ladies 2s had a comfortable 8-0 win against Upminster 3s and remain second in the league. The ladies 4s lost narrowly 2-3 against Southend & Benfleet 3s with goals from Keerithika Kuganeswaran and Maureen Paul and also stay second in their division. The ladies 5s lost 0-2 to Havering 4s. The ladies 3s did not have a match
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It was good news for the men’s sides with the first 7 teams all winning well.
Loughts march on...

On Sunday the men’s 1s were away in Watford playing West Herts and came home 3-1 winners after two goals from Tom Watson and one from Nathan Gladman. An away fixture against a physical West Herts team fighting to avoid relegation was never going to be easy or pretty. Loughts’ opponent’s tails were up after a win the preceding week against London Edwardians and they certainly meant business.

Coach Lee Ible sounded like a marriage guidance counsellor as he barked in Dolly Parton fashion “stay with your man, stay with your man” for the umpteenth time. But stay with your man they did and came out worthy winners.

Loughts created a number of scoring opportunities in the first half but it was down to the inimitable Tom Watson to tidy up after a Harvey Edwards short corner to put Loughts’ noses in front after 7 minutes. Loughts were enjoying a fair degree of success with their work rate and pressing game. They looked organised and could have had more goals perhaps if they had increased the ball pace and moved into space when carrying the ball rather than playing within the West Herts wingspan.

At half time the team were cajoled by Coach Lee to remain compact and calm and move the ball in and out of pockets at greater speed. They did this pretty well in the second half with Mitch Jones adding his special kind of grit in mid-field and Dan Jackson back to his storming best. Rob Bloss was dancing up and down the pitch from the back line and making everybody around him look pedestrian.

It was however down to the undoubted man of the match Watson to help calm the nerves. He sublimely cushioned a wayward pass to the ever willing Edwards whose back-hand shot was repelled by the keeper but only for Watson on the follow up to score between the keeper’s legs. It was a really fine goal. Half back Mark Loughrey then got into the act and, following a marauding run down the right, he passed to Nathan Gladman who was only too happy to add to his goal tally and put away a fine goal.

At 3-0 Loughts just had to see the game out. When Herts scored a late goal from a short corner (after Bloss was adjudged to have come off the line too early - actually it may have been that the umpire could not believe that he reached the ball that quickly) there were one or two anxious moments but the whole team rallied to record a fine win.

It was an important result for the team and with second placed Spencer losing 2-0 to Hammersmith & Westminster 2s, Loughts now sit 5 points ahead of Richmond at the top of the table with 4 matches to play. Next week they entertain Indian Gymkhana.

On Saturday the M2s moved closer to winning the East League south division after winning 6-4 away at Blueharts 2s. They are now 8 points clear with 3 games to play.

The M3s Foresters also scored 6 in a 6-2 win against Old Southendians 2s and stay in second behind Colchester 1s. The M4s Academy won 4-2 against Upminster 3s and the M5s Loppers won 8-2 against local rivals Waltham Forest 3s with goals from Sam Bennett, Ben Charles, Gurmit Dhillon, Gurvir Jutla (2), Akram Khan (2) and Harjinder Singh.

The M6s Willows secured promotion after winning 6-0 against second placed Brentwood Academy with a first half hattrick from Phil Beauman followed by a brace from Rob Simmons and one from Daniel Clark. They can secure the league title with a win next week against Chelmsford. In the same division the M7s Willows Woodsmen won 2-1 against Saffron Walden 6s and remain in third spot. It was however not to be a clean sweep for the men as the M8s Willows Rangers lost 3-7 to Braintree 5s and the M9s Willows Axemen lost 0-6 to Old Southendians 5s.

On Sunday the under 14 boys were away at Cambridge City and in a tight match lost narrowly 3-4. The under 14 girls were at home to Bishop’s Stortford and won 4-2. The under16 boys were in action in the Tier 1 EH Supra League and came home 8- 3 winners after a long trip to Norwich with goals coming from Caspian Coupe (4), Finlay Kinnaird, Jack Moffat and Gus Peddy. The U18 boys, also in the league, were away to Surbiton Vikings but missing some key players succumbed 1-5 with the only goal scored by Sean White.