Ladies 5th XI Vs Woodlands 2

Did someone say last goal wins the match??? 

Derby Ladies 5s vs Woodlands 2s

2nd match of the season and another match report (not planning to make a habit of this btw but the match did deserve a report). 

2 more debuting for the team this week - Alishya coming in from the junior section and Lennie new to the club. Team talk - in short this was gonna be a hard one but stay positive, focussed and play to our strengths. 

I personally demonstrated this brilliantly within about 10 minutes. Intercepted a ball coming in to the D knowing I could get it and I did, with my foot, and wow it was pretty spectacular - it went top corner of the goal and was well out of Gill's reach. Gutted Ave hadn't got on the pitch yet as it looked like all the 'clever' foot skills would just be down to me this week. Well ok enough about me I hear you say. 

So in the warm up I asked Alishya where she liked playing. In the middle she said. Clearly this one enjoys running, I'm good with that. Lennie paired up with Rachel as the 2 defensive inners and what a pair they were, yes also doing lots of running, crikey both were like Duracell bunnies never letting up. Jan played a very selfless role in midfield bringing the forwards and midfield in to the game strongly supported by Sheridan. 

Note the team talk, it was a strong opposition and that gave us 2 options as a team, crumble or rise to the challenge and well guess what we did. This brought out Millie's strengths. Julie was impressive as always in defense. There were a few instances where we were outnumbered in defense. Often this was because we did not want to give up on the attack and pushed forward and sometimes it was because some (one) of us (me) failed to man mark. But hey if the intention was to give Millie the opportunity to shine under pressure then I'll take some of the credit for that. Quite often Millie was left outnumbered with difficult choices to make and where some of us would panic, fumble etc, she would be calm, somewhere out of no where she would give herself time to figure out the best course of action and then implement it within a split second.  Definitely one to watch this one. 

So at 2 down at some point in the 1st half, we were in their D, several of our players and yes the ball too. The ball had travelled from side to side and end to end and most of the time Rachel and Lennie were there in the thick of it but also there was some super passing and all the players getting involved - a strike on goal, saved, ball back in our control, another strike, saved, kept in, another, intercepted, another from Katie that many thought that was it only for it to somehow not cross the line. I've asked the rest of the team and our supporters for a more accurate account of what happened and not had any luck.  I obviously couldn't see as I was at the back spectating (playing) and yelling c'mon and probably having a chat with Val. OK so we didn't score but there was some great hockey in that. 

At half time we were 3 down, Alishya had been playing up front and the last 5 minutes moved in to a half position and building in confidence. Katie, Connie and Zoe had been working really well in pairs and as a 3 taking the ball left and getting round players and Cinz, Sheridan and Jan mirroring that through the centre and the right. The 2nd half Alishya really showed us what she can do. It wasn't just increased confidence but she was also playing in positions that suited her better with interceptions, holding the ball, passing and supporting those around her. Woodlands seemed to come back stronger in the 2nd half but actually so did we. And what we showed is that we never give up. 

At 5 down and Woodlands not easing up on us we still had determination and resilience, we still worked as a team because again with pretty much all involved and using the width of the pitch Zoe brought the ball up the left, to Connie, then back round their defense, round the right, Cinz and Katie in the mix too, no one giving up and the ball pinged off the goal post and then back to Zoe who got it in. In my head about 14 of our players were involved in that goal so there may be some inaccuracies in this but the main point is that we played well and never gave up, we had fun and there were so many positives about the game that the scoreline doesn't show. We were winners today because hockey and club and the team were winners with the way we all played. 

The MoM votes for Cinz, Lenny and Zoe but Millie and Alishya won with 3 each showing again the team effort. 

Thank you Val for Umpiring and the general humour during the game. 

Thank you supporters for the encouragement and banter. 

And thank you again to the club for what you all do with bringing new players to the club, back to hockey and junior hockey. We are reaping the benefits of all that hard work