Men’s 2s Match reports

The Men's 2's hosted Burnt Ash and found themselves in a feisty game where both teams had chances to win the game. 

Burnt Ash scored first despite several saves from Darren Richardson. Anchs returned the favour second half with an assist from Ben Selby to James Twigg on the penalty spot.

Anchs had the opportunity to win the game but also had a hard defensive slog against a tough opposition so a draw felt fair.

Every player gave 100% but MOTM was Joel Beard by a long shot who's constant runs up the line caused constant problems to the opposition.

Thank you to Matt and Richard for umpiring.

The Men’s 2s travelled to Marden hoping for their first away win of the season.

The game started brilliantly — and confused all of us — as we found ourselves 2–0 up within the first 10 minutes. The first goal came from a great deflection by James Twigg, and the second, of course, was a trademark Drew Hughes drag flick. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

For the rest of the half, Anchs continued to create chances — many coming from fantastic runs by Tom Wood, Joel Beard, and James Pitcher. Unfortunately, a green card put us down to 10 men, and Marden managed to pull one back just before the half-time whistle.

The second half was mostly a defensive battle, with key saves from Darren and strong tackles from Drew, Neil, Tom, and Garth. Relentless effort kept Marden out, until James Pitcher seized an opportunity to break up the pitch — taking the ball down the line, beating several players, and slipping it across for me to put Anchs 3–1 up.

The game grew tougher as it went on, but Anchs dug in. Great defensive work from Cashy and Ethan kept Marden at bay, but another green card saw us down to 10 again, and Marden eventually grabbed a second to make it 3–2.

It’s safe to say Anchs ground out a hard-fought away win — even with another two green cards shown — moving us up to 2nd in the league.

James Twigg capped off his 2s debut with a well-deserved Man of the Match performance.

Thanks to Dean and Mick for their support! Bring on next week!

Mens 2's Vs Maidstone 3's

Anchs went into this week's game with confidence after such a strong performance against Canterbury last Saturday.

Game started similar to last week with Anchs having chances to put the game away but not quite having the final pass/finish.

Anchs dominated the half with a great press stopping the opposition from getting out of their defence. This required constant work across the forward line from the likes of Dave Shepherd, Dave Hopkins and Ethan Sindrey.

This pressure eventually lead to Anchs winning a short corner. Up stepped Drew Hughes to add another drag flick goal to his collection. 1-0.

The second half saw Maidstone get a handful of chances. Most were kept out by great tackling from Tom Banfield and Gareth Price across the back as well as great saves from Darren Richardson. Despite this great defensive line Maidstone managed to break the scoreline getting one back. 1-1.

Normally Anchs would drop their heads, but if anything it spurred them on to attack. Great passing and skills from the likes of Ash Risby, Tony Cashman and Joel Beard lead to Anchs putting the pressure on.

Dave Hopkins then reacted quickly to a sideline ball, dribbling into the D, taking the ball round a defender, to slip the ball to Ben on the penalty spot to put Anchs ahead. 2-1.

The game was grounded out with the win and MOTM going to Neil Byrne for constantly picking the ball off attackers with ease as well as saving a certain goal off the line in the first half.

Odd to come away from a win feeling like we could have done better but it shows signs of a team who is ready to complete in this league and seems to be improving week on week.

Thank you to Andy and Paul for umpiring a scrappy game.

Bring on next week! Come on Anchs!

Right. Where do we start...

After last week's poor performance the Men's 2s went into today's game with high hopes that we could get the formula/formation right against what we would assume would be a formidable Canterbury opposition.

The game felt even for 10 minutes with opportunities going either way. This then changed when Anchs won a short corner and Drew Hughes drag flicked the ball bottom corner to give Anchs the lead.

The rest of the half felt like classic Anchs where we had opportunities to increase the lead but not quite having the execution. That repeat feeling of expecting the oppo to come back at us was looming.

Bring on the second half and what a second half it was! It started with Darren Richardson pulling off an incredible 1 on 1 save to keep Anchs spirits high.

Shortly after, Anchs counter attacked with constant work from Cashy and Ash Risby in the middle. This combined with great play from Joel Beard and Tom Wood, resulting in Anchs winning a penalty flick.

Up steps David Hopkins, who I think was putting the ball down on the spot before it had even been called. With no stress he put it away. 2-0.

My memory gets hazy at this point so the order might vary but further hard work and great play from Alex Hamer and others lead to a string of short corners. Drew stepped up rocketing one in the net. 3-0. This followed by Hamer putting another away from a short 4-0.

Short corners kept coming and Drew completed his hat trick with a third drag flick 5-0. Anchs were greedy for more and another goal was scored in open play by Tom Wood after some silky passing up the pitch from the team. 6-0.

Shortly before the end a pass/shot was put in by Gareth Price for Ben Selby to deflect past the keeper. 7-0.

Despite the scoreline the defence worked tirelessly with great tackles coming in from Tom Banfield and Neil Byrne.

MOTM went to Joel Beard who's skill and runs across the pitch caused the opposition constant problems.

It's worth noting that Canterbury battled hard and had a handful of skilful youngsters who kept going and constantly made life hard for us. I imagine in a few years they will really start to cause us problems and we appreciated that they never stopped or lost focus when the scoreline didn't go their way.

A huge thank you to Phil and Lacky for umpiring.

Bring on next week against Maidstone! Now the season has properly started!

Men's 2's Vs Cliftonville - 3-0 Loss

The 2s had the pleasure of travelling away to Cliftonville for their first league game of the season. The game started well with some nice play from youngsters Joel Beard and Mark Richardson that almost resulted in a goal. However as the game went on and pressure built, Anchs found themselves 1-0 down despite several great saves from Darren Richardson. We also went down to 10 players after a poor choice of words were exchanged with the officials.

Unfortunately the second half Anchs never really regained their shape. The effort was there in terms of defending and winning the ball back however this was always let down by our distribution. Anchs were 3-0 down and again down to 10 men due to frustrations.

Not the start that Anchs wanted but hopefully a few lessons to learn for our first home game next week.

The new season pushed back for the 2s with a home friendly vs Holcombe. We didn’t even have to wait a minute for our first goal, with Ash Risby capitalising on a defensive mix up to put us 1-0 up. The game settled from then on, with Anchs remaining on top. We had a few chances to double our lead, with David Hopkins being denied by the goalkeeper and defender when only a few yards out from goal. However, that was soon forgotten (by David at least) when he managed to score a unbelievable goal from the edge of the D that spectators were heard quoting as “the best goal we’ve ever seen”. Others disagreed, with many remembering an excellent through ball from Mark Richardson to David, who completely scuffed the shot which snuck past the keeper. Who is right? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Anchs picked up where they left off after half time, constantly pressuring Holcombe and looking very threatening. Two more goals were our reward, with Mike Selby getting on the rebound from a Drew Hughes drag flick, and Ash Risby getting his second with a brilliant solo goal. Both scorers had chance to get an extra goal each, but after about 20 shots from a few yards out, a 16 to Holcombe was the outcome for both players. Despite these misses, somehow neither won DotD, with that award going to David for… scoring… riddle me that?! Man of the match went to Joel Beard on his debut, who constantly looked a threat, with Mark Richardson not far behind in the votes but still getting champagne moment for his through ball for the second goal.

An excellent performance from every player, giving us confidence going into the start of the season next week at Cliftonville.