A glorious day as Southgate saw not just the M1s win in style but also M2s, M3As and all three Tankards teams.

Div 5SW – 3A vs Rickmansworth 1s – Won 5-1           

Div 6SW – Tankards A vs Rickmansworth 2s – Won 1-0        

Div 8SW – Tankards Y vs Bishop’s Stortford 5s – Won 4-3        

Div 8SW – Tankards Z vs Blueharts 6s – Won 8-0

3As What a stark contrast to last week when dominant possession failed to yield any goals. This week there were four for Lucas Jaehnig whilst playing in an unfamiliar position at CF. Take a bow Lucas. #gamechanger.

The final result was a comprehensive 5:1 victory over a combative Rickmansworth side – the additional goal being provided by Jackson Trathen.

Although never being behind at any stage of the match, the 3As character was tested when Ricky scored shortly after the halftime break to make the score 2:1. Ricky are a team driven by moral and had they got the equaliser the game could have taken a very different curve. Nevertheless 3As are blessed with not only youth, speed, experience and skill they also have resolve and weathered the storm to manage the game intelligently to its final conclusion.

The youngsters were impeccable. Notable performances from Tom Murphy @ LB whose willingness to receive the ball in tight areas and then to distribute it accurately was commendable. Noah Lavy, in a new position @ CM showing composure and guile beyond his years and the ability to mix-it with the opposing grown-ups and to Sam Ziff who was, as Phil put it, “Faultless”.

Coupling the strong collective performance in open play, was an effective and varied short corner routine that yielded goals – (3 I think) and again was a marked improvement on last week.

With Ravi Chana setting the pre-match tone and his conducting of the on-pitch orchestra, the young virtuosos flourished.

Tankards A earned a hard-fought 1-0 win with the goal from Will Hargrove from a short corner. Thanks to Howie Wilson and Martin Kavanagh for joining and putting in vital shifts. Great performances all round. Good patience and temperament. Nice to welcome Duncan Knox to the team for his first league game for Southgate. Captain Will Hargrove was voted MoM, but there were plenty of candidates in the running.

Tankards Y won 4-3 in a really tight game, coming from 3-1 down at one point. Southgate scored first but went in 2-1 down at halftime, although we had the lion’s share of the 1st half chances and whilst we started the 2nd half well, a lapse in concentration cost us a further goal. Tremendous spirit from the team, though, to refocus and go again, bringing us back to 3-3 and then set up for MS Patti to hit home the winner from a short corner. Our other goals were from Dave Richardson (2) and Wayne Garner, having been set-up by his son Guy Garner – great family and team effort!

Some super performances across the field, notably Mat Mitchell at sweeper, Dave up front and Wayne in midfield. However, the two standout players this week were Freddie Trathen and Veysel Demir. Freddie was tireless in pressing our advantage from RB, tracked back to cover and consistently made good decisions. Veysel pulled off a number of good saves including an outstanding deflection off his left pad to steer the ball towards the touchline. It was very difficult to separate them but Freddie Trathen was this week’s MoM.

Tankards Z  started very well when Harry Grinham pinched the ball from a Bluehart player almost directly after their push back and ran forward with the ball before passing to his right wing Alistair Whatley, these two were going to establish an excellent pairing up front.

Within the first ten minutes a decent shot from the hard pressing Tankards Z Harry Grinham hit a good shot at goal which was deflected up in the air and past the Blueharts GK. A little lucky to score but very relaxing for the rest of us. Grinham scored another and Alistair scored two fabulous goals, all power and far too quick for any GK to make it 4-0 at half time.  There were however several good efforts by the Blueharts but they couldn’t beat the second player covering, often this was Jez Lavy but increasingly Chris Rouse.  The control and ease with which Tony Mastroddi stopped and passed was a good lesson to the rest of the team.

Shahed Ahmad and his son Samir playing their first Tankards game did well, particularly Dad, a strong defender and player with good vision and a powerful flick.

The second half saw a change round of playing positions to enable the Captain to see the new players from different perspective. This gave Mastroddi the chance to play mid field and later in the forward line. However, it was 13-year-old Harry Grinham who marshalled the forward attacks, collecting and passing at the right time.  From a penalty corner Os Bate scored from a second shot at goal. Then Alistair Whatley knocked in two more followed by a goal from Tony Mastroddi.  8 – 0. There were times when Tankards were put under pressure, Nigel Dixon kept out at least two superb shots but generally our cover sorted out earlier errors.

A most gratifying performance by all 13 players. MoM would almost automatically go to a player who knocks in four goals – Alistair Whatley

But the casting vote went to Harry Grinham for making the goals he didn’t actually score. No others got a vote, these two were so far ahead.