Another weekend of fantastic friendlies and pretty awesome pre-season matches for East London ahead of what's tipped to be the best season yet! 

L1s and L2s face off against Hampstead and Westminster

The top two teams on the Ladies side of the club both played against Hampstead and Westminster in their final pre-season friendly.

L1s were expecting a tough game and were put under plenty of pressure. Despite ultimately conceding 5 unanswered goals the game was described by their coach as ‘a good display’ and bodes well for the season ahead.

L2s were also facing a strong opposition who, despite being short on players, kept within a goal of East at half-time. A sneaky half-time-top-swap from Emily Quinn saw the numbers equalled out and the team getting some more realistic game practice. Final score was 6-6 and all in all a positive start to the season.

L7s put up a great performance against our rivals

The L7s took on our fierce rivals Wapping 7s and although some great pre-season training has been taking place - sadly the score didn't reflect our good form. There were a lot of important points to take away from the game though, especially seeing the practises from training being implemented during the game. We'll get them next time!

More East on East action in the Ladies teams 

The rest Ladies teams decided not to look further afield for their competition with the L3s playing the L4s and the L5s playing the L6s. 

The L3s vs L4s match started out very tough for the first 10-15 minutes with both teams taking on quite a few new members to the club. The L3 managed to pull away in the second half (probably due to some top pre-season fitness sessions) ending up with a 9-0 victory. 

In the next East on East game the competition was very closely fought. The L5s and L6s were not willing to go easy on one another. With a high percentage of turnovers, both sides struggled in the first half to maintain possession. In the second though, after good team talks, the L5s managed to pull away winning 2-0. 

The L5s weren't satisfied though and decided to have another match on Sunday too. Winning one match a weekend just isn't enough for some teams! They played Crostyx 3s and came out with a stunning 5-1 win (even though some were feeling a little less fresh than usual). 

The newly formed Sparrows and Ravens (L8s and L9s) also had a really constructive and fun game on Sunday morning with lots of great learning points and friendly competition. We look forward to see what comes from them next! 

Final Men’s Preparation

M5s went to play away against Romford 1s and despite being 2-0 down in a testy encounter, stuck to it and ended up 3-2 winners.

M2s played the M3s in a rematch ('grudge match'/training exercise) following their encounter at the end of the season last year which saw the M3s come out 2-1 winners. This time despite small talk from former winning goal scorer Alan Fitzpatrick, M2s were clearly the better side scoring 4 goals to 1.

M4s and M6s both played under dark clouds down in Bermondsey against London Royals. M6s got a fast start and could have scored more than the 6 goals they eventually got against a decent opposition. M4s, meanwhile, saw the youth wing of the club coming into its own with goals from Jordan and George in a 4-1 win.

The M7s and M8s faced some tricky competition at Mile End in Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets respectively. There were some more heated and fiercely fought encounters with East unfortunately losing the first match 6-0. However, we took back some pride with Tom Parrot surprising us all scoring a fantastic winning goal taking East to a 2-1 victory.

M1s play in the PLUM Tournament

The opening day of the PLUM tournament saw the M1s go down a goal in both their games but put up stronger second half displays in both games earning 4 points from a win and draw.

On the second day of the tournament, East faced off again against Havering, who they drew with the previous weekend. This time however a great work rate, particularly from player of the weekend Henry Emery, saw them win 2-0.

In the final game of the weekend, against another strong Prem B opponent, East once again acquitted themselves well with strong defensive display and patient build-up work. With the final score 2-2, new M1s coach Asif Rais has led the team to an unbeaten pre-season and put them in a strong position to push for promotion this year.

All in all an outstanding end to pre-season and bring the league matches starting next week!