Men’s 1s Match reports

Anchorians dig deep for a well-earned away win!

A strong all-round performance saw the men’s 1s come away from Sittingbourne with a 3–0 victory, built on hard work, grit, and a touch of class up front.

Sittingbourne started fast, pressing hard and forcing some early defending from the Anchorians back line. Phil, with his friends watching on, decided this was the perfect game to show off — pulling off several top saves and even throwing in a few camera dives for good measure.

Both Harry and Lacky made goal-line clearances from short corners to keep the clean sheet intact, while Ethan battled on after taking a knock to the head. Up front, Alex worked hard linking play (and took a bit of a battering from the Sittingbourne centre back for his efforts).

After the break, Anchorians started to take control. A lovely move saw Alex pick out Lacky, who slotted home the opener. With Sittingbourne pushing to find a way back, space began to open up — and Joel did what Joel does best. Two well-taken goals later, he’d sealed the win… and yet again managed to avoid that elusive hat-trick!

It was a proper Anchorians display — solid at the back, dangerous on the break, and full of determination right across the pitch.

A brilliant team effort all round — grit, graft, and good laughs throughout.

What a match at our home ground today — a full-on emotional rollercoaster for everyone! From being pressed high early to feeling quickly overwhelmed by Sutton Valence, things didn’t exactly start to plan. Sutton Valence came flying out of the blocks, putting three past us before the half-time whistle, and it looked like we might be in for a long afternoon.

But after an inspiring half-time speech from good old Lacky — with a few people clearing the air — things turned around. Turns out all we needed was a spark of hope, because the second half was the turning point for the team. Cal found an opening and took it brilliantly to kick-start our comeback, reminding everyone why we belong in this league. He then went on to grab another goal, completely shifting the momentum and making Sutton Valence’s heads implode.

Then came the moment of the match — the one that gave Phil champagne (and maybe a few goosebumps too). He pulled off a penalty flick save so good it deserves its own slow-motion replay. The crowd erupted in cheers, applause, and pure relief.

Of course, no classic Anchorians comeback would be complete without a bit of chaos — tempers flaring, crowd objections, and frustrations from both sides as decisions went one way or the other. But despite all that, Luc stepped up with a lovely flick from a short corner to make it 3–3 before the final whistle — and I think we can all agree, that felt like a win in our eyes.

Man of the Match goes to none other than Harry, for his relentless effort bombing up the wing and staying strong in defence against some tough opposition.

As for the DOTDs, they hide in the shadows this week — Will, for hurting his arm and then apparently his leg to top it all off, and Phil… well, if he hadn’t let in those first three goals, maybe we’d have had the three points we needed! (All jokes aside, we wouldn’t change him for the world.)

Everyone should be proud of the shift they put in today. We really did push ourselves to level the playing field — and hopefully, this marks the start of the uprising for the Anchs 1s team.

The Mens 1’s took on BBHC in what could only be described as an “eventful” away tie that unfortunately saw your men in purple and white lose 4-1

The match started, and we found ourselves down early, the goal clearly couldn’t have been that memorable because I don’t remember it at all, which is a common theme about this game as I can safely say that we’d like to forget what occurred. One person however who will not forget the windy day at Avery Hill is Sam who finished nicely to equalise with his first goal of the season.

From this point on, the game descended into carnage. Amongst that carnage, BBHC did manage to pull ahead, scoring two penalty corners (the second of which Capitan Phil would especially like to forget) and also catching us napping with a counter attack, whilst we could only manage to hit the post a stupid number of times.

Despite all this, the boys showed great determination, and lessons will be learned, onto next week where hopefully we can resume our winning ways.

Big shoutout to our travelling support! A lack of communication told the kitchen that oppo didn’t want food - leaving a team of battered and bruised blokes starving, and finally, a massive shoutout to Lacky’s car for not fancying a drive home.

Anchorians suffered a frustrating defeat on Saturday afternoon, letting a 1-0 half-time lead slip as Ashford fought back with two second-half goals to take all three points.

The day did not get off to a good start when the captain (still learning) forgot the match ball which was sitting comfy in his car. Then during the warm up our star striker managed to pull his side whilst practicing a drag flick. However we still felt comfortable going into the start.

Anchs began brightly and were rewarded for their early pressure with a well-taken goal before the break. A slick passing move was finished off clinically by Risby, giving Anchorians a deserved 1-0 lead going into half time.

However, Ashford came out with renewed energy after the interval, pressing higher and showing greater attacking intent. Their persistence paid off when they found an equaliser midway through the second half, capitalising on a defensive lapse to level the score.

As the momentum swung in Ashford’s favour, Anchorians struggled to regain control, and with less than ten minutes to play, the visitors completed the turnaround with a decisive second goal – a low drive into the middle of the backboard from a short corner.

Anchorians pushed forward in the closing stages in search of an equaliser but were unable to break down a resolute Ashford defence.

It was a disappointing result but the lack of fresh legs through the forward and midfield lines showed come the final whistle.

Still a good performance with this being our third game in the new system. Man of the match was Adam W for a sterling performance at right back. Champ was Hayden for his base line run assist and Prat was Lacky as per for Lacky reasons

Final Score: Anchorians 1-2 Ashford

Maidstone 2s 1 – 5 Gillingham Anchorians 1s

The mighty Anchorians 1s kicked off the season away at Maidstone, who kindly provided us with a pitch, opposition and umpires.

Skipper Skillen led with a stirring pre-match speech. The message was clear: this was the team that left us with just the one point from a possible 6 last year.

New formation, fresh faces, whistle blown. Season on.

Here’s the first half went down in bullet form:

Joel scored (standard).

Everyone ran around acting like we’d actually trained.

Ethan B flat-sticked anything that dared move.

Harry B moonlighting as a winger.

Lacky scored from a short corner

Half-time team talk: Phil and Mr Gray dropped pearls of wisdom.

Second half = carnage. Joel and Cal bagged two in two minutes. 4–0. Maidstone threatened a comeback, but Joel killed the mood with another counter-attacking finish

At 5 0, Madistone pulled one back from a short corner. Anchs carreid on working until full-time, with Sam H cruelly denied a goal after Risby rob him of golden opportunity.

Big win. Big laughs. Big three points. Season well and truly underway.

13th September 5-1 win against Holcs

New season and a new look to the men’s 1s formation. The team talk was initially two men down- one due to (I imagine) horses and the other due to a lack of being able to read timings. The key points though, were of focusing on the new press and being solid in the middle of the pitch.

The game started with a flash of last season, defending a short corner within the first thirty seconds. Lacky came to the rescue as I decided to tap the ball backwards after saving the first effort at goal. Once we had settled the boys work the press well and we were turning the ball over in high and wide areas, the guys doing exactly what was asked of them. The first goal came from a long windy run from Joel who entered the D on the right hand side to blast home into the bottom corner. First quarter ended at 1-0. A change in press was tried which allowed Holcs to have more of the ball. Even with this Ben, Lacky and Harry did their defensive jobs well and stopped Holcs being able to level things up.

With the score still 1-0 at the half we decided to go back to what had been working in the press and absolutely played Holcs off the pitch with three goals in the third quarter. All coming from high turn overs, which either lead to goals in open play or several short corners. Joel benefited from a danger pushing for one and being on the end of some good team work in the D for the other. Alex H joined the score sheet after another turn over from Will lead to an easy slap in past a scrambling keeper.

Holcs did managed to grab one goal by high pressing. A hard pass into the D found the end of a Holcs stick with a good save (humble brag) the rebound unfortunately landed at the feet of another forward to tap in. Our response was to score almost instantly, with a classic Anchs counter attack - Jake and Joel combining for a fifth goal. Described as ‘sweaty’ (not sure must be a youthful phrase).

After the count the man of the match was split between Ethan and Hayden. A huge well done to everyone that played, and with seven players earning votes for player showed how much of a good performance it was. First league game next week away to Maidstone and looking forward to seeing how we will shape up this year.