Unfortunately this week’s efforts to find an opposition have been fruitless and as such we have a second consecutive weekend off.
Please respond the thread on Facebook to notify us that you have received this message if you were originally available.
See you in Druids.
Unfortunately, the Saints have not been able to get a team. Kingstonian stepped in, but then lost players and have now also dropped out.
Next game will hopefully be on March 3rd.
WIFC suffered a 4th defeat in their last 5 IFA games, as a vastly improved Dulwich Hamlet side took the honours in a see-saw match at Belair Park last Saturday.
A penalty from Joel Moody and a deflected Stuart Nicholls strike gave WIFC a two-goal lead, but a calamitous last 20 minutes saw Dulwich spring a surprise with a great comeback. Full report to follow on the Watford Observer site and more pictures in the WIFC facebook group.
WIFC team – Jeremy Hinds; Ed Sterry, Dan Willis, Martin Pollard, Phil McBride; Joel Moody, Stuart Nicholls, James Hannaford, Laurence Wells; Steve Eustice, Warren Flanagan. Subs Richard Murphy & Matt Wells.
WIFC were beaten by the better side at Parmiters last Saturday.. goals from Joel Moody, Dave Soloway and Matt Ainsley. Apologies for the lack of a full report, was a busy week.. if anyone fancies writing one up. please do and Email it across..
WIFC racked up a first clean sheet since August and a convincing 5-0 win against AFC Wimbledon ‘B’ at a chilly Met Police earlier today, to secure a semi-final place in the IFA London Cup.
In a game that also counted for the league, Stu Nicholls opened the scoring with a first half strike, A brace from skipper Chris Dundon on his 100th appearance for the club was sandwiched by an own goal, and Dave Soloway completed the scoring.
Man of the Match Aidy Spender secured a unique prize – the unwanted Jeroboam of Budweiser from Friday night’s man of the match in the Watford – Spurs game, Rafael vander Vaart !
Full report can be found here..
Availabilities are now being collected for our next home game, the morning after the Spurs game, against AFC Wimbledon. The game will count for the league, and is also our last group match in this season’s IFA London Cup. After wins v Barnet and Dagenham & Redbridge, we’re nicely poised to confirm a semi final berth.
Please don’t reply to this message… click the link below to leave your availability..
WIFC v AFC Wimbledon availabilities
A goal from Jimmy Davis, and one each for loanees Luke Hand and Richie Duncan weren’t enough for WIFC, who went down to defeat at a blustery Oxford.
Full match report from Polly:
| WIFC made the visit to Oxford on Saturday, the trip being on route to those players making the further trip to watch the Hornets play at Birmingham that afternoon. A sticky bobbly pitch and blustery conditions made things tricky but it was still an improvement on rock hard frozen pitches from the previous week
Looking to learn lessons from their previous encounter against Oxford, joint manager Chris Davis chose to load the midfield in a bid to stifle Oxfords creativity but the home side started strongly and WIFC were under pressure for large periods of the first half. Oxford took the lead when they broke down the right and laid the ball off to the 18 yard line for a simple finish from their midfield. Maintaining their momentum Oxford increased their lead from a set play, taking advantage of a foul to send the free kick looping to the far post for a simple finish and soon made it three goals when their tricky forward received the ball with still a lot of work to do, drove an excellent finish past keeper Tom Beck. With ten minutes of the first half remaining and having created few clear cut chances, WIFC made a couple of changes and introduced nippy forward Jimmy Davis to the game. The change made an immediate impact with Jimmy’s pace unsettling the Oxford defence, and WIFC pulled a goal back when Jimmy outpaced his marker and placed a neat finish past Oxfords keeper and the half finished 3-1 to Oxford. It was Watford’s turn to play into the wind in the second half, and they settled quickly and finally began to look more in control of the game until confusion between sub keeper Jeremy Hinds and centre back Martin Pollard ending with the defender touching the ball beyond the keeper and into the path of Oxfords striker for a finish into an empty net. However the Watford fans can be credited for not letting their heads drop and pulled a goal back with the goal of the game, loanee left winger Luke Hand started a move down the touch line, before releasing the ball out to the right wing and continuing his run into the box to receive Richard Murphy’s cross and head past the keeper. Oxford responded once again to put pay to any potential come back with a carbon copy of their first goal, and other WIFC loan player Richie Duncan grabbed a goal with a neat finish to leave the score 5-3 in Oxford favor at the final whistle. |
With Watford away at Birmingham in the afternoon, WIFC will be stopping off in Oxford on the way to return the fixture played earlier this season, when braces for Alex Prentice and Jimmy Davis secured a 4-1 win.
It’s been a while since we visited Oxford, with our last trip taking place in July 2008, when we played 3×30 minute friendlies as a warm-up for that year’s Worldnet. The game was notable as it was Dave Morren’s debut, goals from Mark Brennan, Lozza Wells and two for Matt Hurley weren’t enough to prevent a 4-7 defeat over the 90 mins.
NB – The game will be a 10am kick off to allow more time to get to Brum.
We are now up to 9 players, with a few maybes and plenty to confirm. Please post availability here asap.
A Joel Moody second half strike was not enough for WIFC, who went down to a 1-3 defeat against our old friends from West Ham. Full report can be found here
Chris and Dave have picked a squad of 17 for Saturday’s game against West Ham – Having 2 keepers allows us one extra from the usual 16. The squad is based on recent away game attendance, thanks to Murph for offering to miss out.
The squad is –
Tom, Jez, Jamie, Aidy, Matt A, Stone, Dan, Phil, Grino, Ed, Big Stu, Stu N, Panos, Myall, Joel, Soloway and Jimmy.
Stand by –
Murph, Wazza.
Please could all players be there by 9.45 sharp.
West Ham are well on course to becoming our most played opponents. This will be the 20th time we’ve met – only the 4th IFA team we’ve played that many times – we’ve also met Forest and Fulham 20 times and QPR are our most played opponent – we’ve met them 24 times.
Our last win was a 2-0 success in the Stevenage Tournament in 2010, and our last league win was a 6-0 victory in November 2007. Our leading scorer against West Ham is Murph with 6 – Mathers and Jimmy have 5 each while Polly, Dundon and Wazza have 3. A total of 25 different players have scored.
