Ladies 3rd XI Vs Buxton 1

DERBY 3RDS 1 - BUXTON 1STS 2

On a wet, windy cloudy day we travelled in 9 cars to Chapel-en-le Frith to play Buxton. (Not good for the environment!) The scenery was amazing (or would have been if we could have seen it) Our sat-navs all seem to have the same sense of humour, as we cut off corners,and scaled mountains, drove the narrowest of lanes, but managed to avoid Buxton and Chapel.

So to the game. Karen's first in charge, and now she has some idea of what she's taken on. A late drop out left us with 11 players (I say the word in the loosest of terms) I had no sooner commented on our lack of pace at the back, and how young Buxton looked, when a neat passing move up front saw Jan open her account for the season, scoring a beauty past their GK. The game then took on the usual contest between our two teams with a great deal of mid-field battles, quite a few attempts on goal by them, which Odders dealt with really well, and the odd break away by us. Their double figure tally of penalty corners to our nil shows some dominance but we held firm and were still leading at half time. Hazel, sporting her England shirt, had a stormer on the left, but naughty girl, handled the ball to get a stern telling off!

Now to Covid's main downside. Could we share sweets at half time???? What do you think Kerry?

The second half was a great battle of wills, determination and later, tired legs. Colette showed signs of years gone by, dominating the centre- mid area, while Sue and Rachel did a great job protecting our aged, rather decrepit defence. A good move saw them score 10 minutes from the end, and this would have been a fair result. However, a freak miss-hit from the top of our D in the last minute, saw the ball fly between several heads into the top corner. Brilliant, perhaps. Lucky, very. But three points to them and a disappointed, very long drive home for us.

One good thing Jan. If, heaven forbid, we get locked down for the rest of the season, you will finish as the 3rds leading goal scorer!

MOM votes : 1 each for Odders, Hazel, Colette and me. Rachel begins the season as usual with a well earned land-slide win of 7 votes. Well done all. A great game to start on.

Val