​Gravesham and Wellcome 1s arrived at their home ground after six weeks, pleased the pitch hadn’t been frozen over. However, little did they know there was much more tension and drama than a simple frozen pitch.

​They faced Folkestone, joint bottom of the league, in a four-goal grudge match. GW started poorly, an unfortunate reoccurrence for the home side, conceding in the first three minutes from a scramble in the D after a player simply ran around the defensive line before playing it into the congested D.

​GW went into the second half with a new plan: win. Their goalkeeper, Keaton, took this very seriously indeed, making not one, not two, but three saves in a row to deny Folkestone and keep GW in the game. His efforts here were not without their rewards, as he took home the Man of the Match title. This lit a spark in GW that ignited their game to that extra level they missed over the Christmas break.

​After beating Folkestone 4-1 the first time the two teams met, GW knew the game should be there for the taking, and boy did they grasp it with both hands. After 15 minutes of a catalogue of poor tackles, Folkestone eventually decided to absolutely pile on Max as he took a shot. After a small deliberation from the umpires, a penalty flick was given. Tommo stepped up, knowing this flick would take his team back into contention and would also take himself to top goal scorer for the club. He slotted it into the bottom right of the goal and brought the game back to evens at 1-1.

​Unfortunately, the match lit a different spark in Tommo as he saw green after a horrendous tackle on Folkestone’s right back, which also took Oli out of the game for a few minutes, injuring him in the process and picking up plenty of "Dick of the Day" votes from his supportive teammates.

​A mere four minutes later, a slightly dazed Oli returned to the pitch and attempted a shot on goal (he has since attempted to brand it as a pass). Regardless, the ball fell to Joe, who stupendously turned around the keeper to guide it into the goal and take GW into the lead, 2-1.

​This is what GW knew: winning games and looking somewhat decent doing it. This can also be used to describe their third goal of the match; after a short corner was given GW’s way, Alex injected the ball, which was expertly stopped by Ryan, who knocked it into the path of Kyle. Kyle absolutely rifled a strike into the goal, taking GW up to a 3-1 lead.

​But wait… there’s more. Max clearly didn’t think the game had been entertaining enough and, through a magnificent display of time-wasting, managed to get himself a green card. But he wanted more; soon after, Max decided to continue his efforts and picked up a second card.

​After a physical and chaotic game, GW kept themselves just three points away from the top of the league. Can they keep up this run? Have they eaten too much over the Christmas break? Find out next time as the victorious GW take on Marden Russets in what will surely be… a game of hockey.