Ladies 5th XI Vs Findern

Report by Ali

Finden 0-3 Ladies 5's ........ at least that's who I think they were playing. The Ladies 5s, ie a mixture of those new to Hockey, those returning to Hockey, a few in the middle and a borrowed keeper turned up on a bright a sunny morning to a pitch that benefited from a 15 min delay to pushback. This was probably a good thing as Gill was unavailable, and she foolishly left myself and Kelly in charge, however Kelly was on call and only made it onto the pitch 10 mins gone when her phone stopped ringing :) The first half was a little tentative as people were a little wary of conditions , however more people slipped over in the car park and walking down to the pitch than only the pitch....with the exception of Kelly. Derby created a number of chances, with some good balls being played into space, good pick ups from Eleanor and Zoe supported in the D by Gail who enjpyed the opportunity to play up high today. Solilid defending from Millie, Marie and Amy, with Holly and Kelly linking up well in the middle and distributing well to the halfs who were Alishya and Simran who made a great impression on her debut. We were awarded 3 short corners, but we went into half time 0-0. At half time we clarified what has to happen at short corners ie the ball needs to go out the D and then come back in, being touched for a goal to be allowed. I left to go to another match at half time and it all got better, with Holly getting us on the scorecard after she found herself in the D, and will a well paced pass towards goal saw it go in. Following on were Eleanor and Zoe, both of whom made excellent runs and positionally found themselves in the right pace at the right time to apply pressure on the keeper. I'm sure someone who was there will tells us more. A good performance from this development side today.... played as a friendly which allowed us to play our very young youngsters and borrow Ceri ( who I'm told made some important saves in the second half.. Thank you Ceri). Apologies to Gill as I left early taking the team sheet with me, and a pair of blue socks I was supposed to give to someone.....Gill really should know better than to leave me in charge. Thoroughly positive performance again this week, and highly enjoyable as always