Two weeks on from our last outing, the Loughts Men’s 4s made their way to Havering to maintain the pressure at the top of the league. This week was especially important ahead of a decisive contest against Waltham Forest 2s coming up next week.

With rather interesting encounters with this opposition before, Captain Rob was keen to make sure that we focus on the match at hand and put in another string performance.

To be totally honest, there was not much to split the sides all the way through, and with the half-time score arriving all square, there was still everything to play for.

The first half saw both sides fail to take any of the chances created, and we felt that we were only one connection, one touch, one shot away from breaking the deadlock. With this feeling, we were sure to carry on through the second period.

And, with the second half still young, we made that decisive move and finish count. After moving the ball out to the right, Sam fired an inviting pass across the face of goal to find the awaiting Leo who made no mistake in making it 1-0.

The rest of the half saw chances come and go, and we held firm in the face of some increased Havering pressure near the end of the match. Keeper Harrison made some hugely decisive saves to keep his clean sheet intact, and the team defended resolutely to run down the remaining minutes. As the final whistle went, the team had secured a vital win in our continued hunt for back-to-back titles this season.

MoM this week was split in votes between Captain Rob, keeper Harrison and Sam B, with the latter deservedly coming out on top with most the votes. Another high-energy, skilful performance in midfield by one of our brightest rising stars saw Sam win his second MoM win of the season. Wonderful effort again Sam!

DoD this week deserves its own section this week – not because there were a range of players nominated for the award, but because instead due to the multitude of reasons why one individual was a clear victor this week. After arriving late to the match, but not before calling Captain Rob as the match had started to say he was running behind, this person made quite an entrance on the pitch with a wholly committed run forward, successfully chasing down a through ball. Though the end result of this endeavour was a rather uncomfortable fall into a side line goal, but also more importantly, the unforgiving gravel below, which ended up leaving quite the mark. The rest of the match saw not quite as much action for them, though they did not escape a final nomination for their rather ill-thought reverse stick attempt at passing the ball down the line. Instead of doing just that, it found its way quite quickly off of the side line. All in all, it was definitely a well-deserved DoD win for you, Andrew, well done!

Match week 16 sees the Loughts Men’s 4s battle hard to a very important victory that keeps the team well and truly in the hunt for the league title this year. With a hugely important match against current league leaders, Waltham Forest 2s, next up for the team, the season does not relent at all. A huge well done to everyone!

Signing off,
Ryan

Men’s 4s Season Stats:
Position: 2nd
Points: 33/48
Goals scored: 39
Clean sheets: 4
Goal scorers (incomplete): Dan 8, Jordan and Leo 4, Ryan and Connor and Mike 3, Richard and Sam K. and Tom and Sam H. 2, Rohan and Fergus and Sam W. and Aaron 1
MoM (incomplete): Tom and Sam B. 2, Richard, and Sam K., Harrison, Chris, Percy, Aaron, Luke, Ely 1
DoD (incomplete): Ryan 3, Chris 2, Richard, Will, Rob, Mike, JP, Rich H., Callum 1