MHC 5's -vs- Slough

First of all well done today everyone! A fantastic game, you all played so well, and we got our first win of the season!
Thank you to everyone who came to support as well, it is so lovely to hear you all shouting your words of encouragement as we play.

It was lovely to have Maddie back as our centre forward and Ruth who played up as right forward this week. Slough had first pushback and both got stuck in straight away, pressuring Slough ad winning the ball in their half. Deb ran up to be our high forward and we all pushed up.
Slough fought hard to keep us out of the D but over the course of the half we won 3 short corners.

We had a slightly different set up around the D with Devin on the left, Ruth at the top, Hayley on the right and Eleanor/Hannah ready to run to the post.

The first short Slough managed to clear but the second bounced around the D and Hannah guided it into the net, 1-0 to us and Hannah's second goal in 2 games!

We worked hard for the rest of the half. Slough won 2 short corners but the defensive team of Hayley, Helen, Georgina and I were ready each time and Kiera expertly kicked the ball away for us to clear it out the D.

Eleanor subbed into the centre back position and showed her speed and fitness running down the Slough forwards. Then the half time whistle came and we were ready for a drink and a breather.

During our chat there were many positive things noted but we spoke about making sure to get in front of the players and run onto the ball.
Lindsey, who had been watching from the side lines, noticed a lot of our play was down one side and we needed to use out 'wings' (something she shouted at us a lot during the second half). She did also say that we played our first half in the way we normally play our second, meaning we were switched on and our energy was high. Now we just had to maintain this for the actually second half!

We started with our pushback and we were ready and strong, pushing up the pitch and keeping our focus. There was some lovely play up the left side of the pitch and all our mids, Amabel, Devin and Molly worked hard together to bring the ball up to our forwards. The ball seemed to keep ended up in the left corner of our end of the pitch but Georgina kept her cool, looking for that pass for each hit out and side line ball even though the slough players were quick for form a ring around her.

We got the ball out of our end and our forward charged up the pitch with Taylor expertly moving around the opposition players. Our drive was there but we didn't manage to score any more goals. Slough won (4 I think) short corners but they were all expertly cleared by Kiera and her defensive team.

When the final whistle went, we were tired but very happy with our 1-0 score- well done girls!

There were lots of votes for MOM but it went to Kiera who had a fantastic game and look so confident every time she cleared that ball away from the goal!