The Men’s 1st X1 were keen to put last weekend’s loss behind them as they faced newly promoted Witney.  The game started spritely as Chiswick went about stamping their authority on the match and created some early chances.  After some good work down the right and a miss-directed shot, Dan MacKenzie was able to put the ball away to take Chiswick 1-0 up. 

The home side continued to pepper the Witney goal and only some good goal keeping and desperation defence kept the Chiswick strikers at bay.  Ben Bell finally made the second break through with a neat flick into the Witney goal to help take a 2-0 lead into half time.  Chiswick continued to press forward and were duly rewarded when Paul Coster tucked away a penalty corner rebound after a strong strike from Chris Hovington to make it 3-0. 

The game continued to run Chiswick’s way with Stu Davies, Ashley Holman and Liam O’Donnell all finding the target as the home side completed a 6-0 victory.  Aside from the goal scorers, Ben Lamprey and Josh Tutton were influential in the midfield for Chiswick while the defence held strong to absorb any Witney attack. 

Coach Niall Mutch will be particularly pleased with the enthusiasm and commitment shown by his side and will hope the side can string some consistent performances together in the games to follow.

The Mens 1st XI made their way to sunny Ashford on sunday
for their first cup game of the year.  The team was looking solid, with a few players stepping up to help out also.

 We started the game knowing Ashford’s game plan..short
  corners, short corners, short corners. With Ashford having the best drag flicker in the league the team knew they had to keep them out of the circle.
Unfortunately early on there was a drive made forward and they managed to nab a foot in the PHC circle. Know and behold they went for the obvious and it rocketed top right corner. PHC responded well and stayed strong in midfield holding the ball well and driving forward with desire. With an outstanding drive forward by Duncan Cole setting up Ash Holman who reversed a deflection into the back of the net it went 1-1
Ashford hit back though and with another short corner and drag flick they made it 2-1
At this point the heavens had opened up and all of a sudden it was raining hard. It was fat rain too, not skinny rain. Fat rain that soaks a man to the bone. PHC then went in half time down 2-1

 In the second half Chiswick fought hard and from great defensive out letting and tackling by Man of the Match Emrys Hart they were managing to stay in the match. At this point the rain got even fatter and harder and the game was suspended. Unfortunately within 10 mins of being in the sheds they were called back out. Then another drive by Ashford, another short corner and route 1 it was 3-1. At this point Chiswick had to fight hard to retain possession. Unfortunately another break from Ashford made it 4-1.

Chiswick still had fight in them, and with a late burst up the right hand lane from the Right Half. Mitch Barrack fired a ball from outside of the quarter and a deflection was had by Ashford into the back of the net finishing the game at 4-2.

Chiswick can hold their heads up high here, with a few players away. We had some youngsters like Emrys Hart and the Holland brothers Will and Rob stepping up and showing they had fight, desire and will certainly be keeping the top tier teams honest this season. A big thanks to the PHC fans for coming out in the monsoonal weather and showing their support. Especially to Tee Barrack for her fantastic photography!

The Plight of the parrot continues.

The 3rd game for the 2nd team sees an almost entirely new team once again, and the loss to a weaker side suggests this could be the reason.

No individual stood out this week in either positive or negative ways except perhaps for Dan Horne, whose incredible saves and a couple of poor decisions were only notable as the score could easily have been 10-0 or 1-0.  but  the positivity of the team and the attitude of the players proved to be strong that despite losing 4-0 we stuck it out together and are still optimistic for the future. 

In the early push back on Saturday, PHC mounted a fantastic come-back to claim their first win of the season. The game started with PHC only having 10 players, two of whom were goalkeepers – Oli Parren’s fantastic organisational skills were to thank for that. Although the extra players arrived only three minutes after push back, that was enough time to see Southgate use their extra man to score the opener. The arrival of the PHC extra man changed the game completely though, and PHC started dominating the game. However, while protesting not being given a short corner, the 4s were hit on the break and were suddenly 0-2 down within 20 minutes. However, we persevered and some quick passing triangles between Dave Young, Kesh Murthy and Emrys Hart saw PHC win another short corner on the stroke of half time. Simon stepped up and buried it, 1-2 at half time.

The second half was more of the same from the end of the first, with fantastic play at a high quality from PHC. Another short corner resulted in another goal, this time from Stiller’s cross being tapped in by Tris. Southgate pushed back at PHC, but a combination of solid defence in the centre from Oli Parren and Chris Butler, brilliant tracking back from Seb Norman, as well as fantastic commanding from Udara Gamalath in the goal, didn’t allow Southgate an opportunity. As the game reached its dying embers, the ball broke to Jack Leech on the right wing, who cut inside and scored a spectacular 68th minute goal, which turned out to be the winner. A great result against the team that was second in the league last year, and something that the 4s can push on from.

Win - 3-2

After a sound preseason the Chiswick men’s 1 were keen to start the league off on a positive note.  The day started better than the teams last outing in Staines – they had more than 6 practice balls.  From the whistle Chiswick imposed themselves on the game and spent most of the first half camped inside the attacking half.  They had some good opportunities to go ahead. Nick Barrack came close after making a strong individual run into the circle only to see his shot hit the post.  Things did not get much better for Nick as he then rolled an ankle and spent the remainder of the game watching from the side lines.  Going into the break Chiswick were still positive and came out strong.  Their possession and territory dominance was rewarded when the ever youthful Chris Hovington slammed home a penalty corner to put Chiswick ahead 1-0.  This seemed to spur the opposition into action and Staines began to press a lot more.  Some casual play at the back by Chiswick allowed Staines to create a turnover slot the ball home to make it 1-1.  The game ebbed and flowed as both teams played hard for a win in the final 20 minutes with neither side able to hit the target.  In fact Chiswick were so determined to go for the win, coach Niall Mutch put himself on up front.   

Draw - 1-1     

In the early push back at Linford Christie, the Mens 4s took on top of the league Richmond with a new-ish looking squad, full of youthful exuberance (one of the PHC boys is so young, he has never heard of a floppy disk). A good start saw PHC go a goal up through Tom Poole, but then disaster struck, and three quick chances for Richmond led to them taking a 3-1 half-time lead. The second half started as the first ended, with Richmond going 5-1 up, before Chiswick finally showed the fight we have to claw it back to 5-3. However, as Chiswick looked for a fourth and, hopefully, fifth goal, we were hit on the break and ended up losing the game 6-3.

Not the greatest result possible, but the boys played very well, and the scoreline didn't reflect that at all. Man of the Match was Tom Poole for his double, with DY picking up Dick of the Day for his obscene lateness.

L - 6-3