Old Loughtonians men conquer long-time leaders Canterbury

Despite the cold, the match heated up almost immediately when Max Sydenham scored for Loughts after only two minutes.

Canterbury came back strongly and equalised just before the end of the first quarter and both sides had chances in a high-quality contest.

Max Heaver put Loughts back in front on 28 minutes, but Canterbury were awarded a series of penalty corners towards the end of the first half.

Jack Tranter stood firm in the Loughts goal, though, and Rob Bloss ran out well to break down Canterbury’s attempts to protect the home side’s lead.

The second half saw both teams threatening to add to the scoreline, with Loughts keeping out another Canterbury penalty corner before Mark Loughrey made it 3-1 after a well-worked penalty corner routine by Loughts.

As the game drew to a close there was a lack of discipline from both teams with both receiving cards.

But despite being a man down, Loughts popped in a fourth goal through Conor Caplan to round off an excellent team performance.

The women’s first and second teams saw their matches postponed due to frozen pitches, along with some of the other men’s fixtures.

But the M2s made the two-hour trip north to play Dereham M1s in the East Premier League and played exceptionally well.

Sam Lowe, Josh Beardwell and Will Smith were solid at the back and Gabriel Inch, Elliott Smith and Harry Kempe creative in midfield.

But a skilful young forward line could not convert the opportunities created and Loughts eventually lost 2-1, with Lowe scoring their goal.

The M3s were at home to Waltham Forest 1s in a local derby and a good performance saw them win 2-1.

The M4s drew 2-2 with Thurrock 1s and the M5s Willows completed an impressive set of results against first-team opposition with a 1-1 draw away against Rochford, with an early goal from Nick Gillett securing the point.

The M7 Willows Rangers lost 4-0 to Maldon 2s and the M8 Willows Axemen lost 2-1 to Chelmsford 8s, with Vikram Singh on target.

The W3s were yet another Loughts team to face first-team opposition and played well but eventually lost 4-2 at Brentwood.

The W4s had a good 1-0 win against Witham 2s with Susy Harrison scoring the winning goal, but the W5s lost 2-0 against Thurrock 2s.

On Sunday the only youth game played was by the Under-14 girls, who stung Braintree Blue Hornets by a convincing 9-2 margin.