Ladies 5 0 - 0 Oxford Ladies 7s

It was a bit of a grey miserable start to a Saturday but energy levels were high as everyone greeted the new hockey season. We were dithering so much that we forgot to do Shake Hands at the beginning of the match. But I also think this was because we all just wanted to get on and play.

Oxford had first push back and made a run up the pitch but it soon got in to the hands of Annabel, after some great 1x1 skills, made a great run for the attacking D. This became very much the pattern of things with a great work rate from Annabel who really made the RM her position this week. We were very good at keeping the ball high and had a great early attempt by team Maddie on goal. Oxford kept the pressure on and the back line had their work cut out for them keeping the ball away from TJ. Jess D worked tirelessly in her CMD position, she and Pippa teamed up nicely to try and keep the ball out of the defensive D. It was great to have Hayley back, she's always so cool and calm in the back and Helen showed she'll take on anybody with some great tackles. All around there was some great defensive play and when we had a defensive short Emily TW shot out as 1 like Usain Bolt with not an ounce of fear. Well done Emily.

Catrin, despite being the sub, showed how much she missed being on the pitch even when we put her in defence. Her and Jess W swopped positions and we discovered what a great defender Jess can make. We also saw some great movement by our new player Maddie Rippon, or just Rippon with 2 similar Maddie on the pitch. She started to read the game and drop when needed to cover the middle gap.

Half time saw us take a well earned breather. In the second half we stepped up our play and this paid off with much more time spent in the attacking half. Annabel and Rippon shared the right side dropping down in turns and making some great runs up. At one point Rippon actually tackled the goalie. Emily TW found her feet in the left Mid position and she too made some great runs. Another attempt on goal came from Maddie Todd, but the goalie shut her down quickly. It was great see so many attempts in the D, we do need to get a foot if we don't have a clear shot though. We had about 5 or 6 attempts on goal which is great for our first game. Oxford weren't letting us have it all our own way they had a few runs up the pitch, normally stopped by Helen but we did have one moment when there was a clash of the Titans between Jess W and their big Witney. Not much can fell our Jess but as Helen knows Witney can take out anybody! Oxford did occasionally look strong and they had a few of their own near misses. But our defence kept tight and we had some great balls up the pitch by team Jess. We defended well our 3 short corners, and also won 2 attacking short corners but couldn't manage to convert.