Ladies 5 0 - 3 Oxford Hawks

An interesting match this week where the result definitely did not reflect the play. We lost quite a few people to the Ladies 4s and other commitments so it was quite a mix of people again. Despite what Oxford Hawks said the match was much closer than they said "Ladies' 6s beat Maidenhead easily."

We started off our match in the usual fashion with Shaking Hands of the opposition. It took us about 10 minutes to settle down and Oxford Hawks made the most of this. We had a defensive short and it looked like we'd saved it for it only to go in. Emily made a great run all the way up the pitch but was denied in the D by their defenders and a lack of open players.Hattie helped pin down the middle when she came on and worked her absolute socks off. We had a short corner and the practice we had at training really paid off with a great push in and strike from Jess but we couldn't find the back of the net. It was definitely tit for tat throughout the first half as we would manage to win the ball and then either forget to pass early or drive up the middle and give it away again. We made things hard on ourselves and gave Oxford Hawks too much room.

It was good to have Ruth on the sideline and she gave us some great pointers during our half time talk.

In the second half we started off strong and far more determined. We kept driving up the wings with some great link ups from Catrin and Emily, Sophie seemed to be everywhere at once using her great skills and Tori was her usual steadfast self in the middle. Annabel made some great runs, sparked off by Hattie but every time we got it into their D one of their older and more experienced defenders would clear it away. We did think that Erica was going to have her moment of glory with a great shot on goal but it rebounded off the post. Next time Erica. A lot of the play was in our attacking half but we just didn't have the closing power. This frustrated Oxford who were looking for more goals. This frustration lead to a few sparks and two players, our very own Tori being one, being sent off to calm things down. Oxford made the most of this and managed to slip through our tight defenses and slip one in. Maddie had a brilliant game making several great saves and giving as much as she got. And that's not to say that our defenders were lacking, in fact Oxford commented on how good they were. Becky ran her heart out channeling players and even made her own save in front of goal. Pippa looked much more confident in the back line and Hayley hit the ball out time and time again, thank you for doubling up Hayley I'm not sure what we'd have done without you.