Ladies's 5 Team Report

We knew this game was going to be tough and the weather did not help, but despite the rain and the cold we came out strong straight from the start.
We started with the ball and pushed high up the pitch. South Berkshire’s defense was strong and denied us entry to the D. They moved the ball very quickly between them not giving us a chance to react but we ran hard trying to intercept the ball. The opposition managed to win a short corner so we set up with our strong defensive team of TJ, Helen, Hayley and team Jess. They pushed the ball out and Jess W was out of the goal like a shot straight to the ball before it made it to the top of the D.
We continued to push hard up the pitch with Catrin working very hard up the right hand side of the pitch, but once again we struggled to make it into the D and near the goal.
The opposition push us back and our defense worked hard, clearing ball after ball. TJ made an excellent save and kicked the ball out the D, unfortunately one of the opposition managed to get a stick on it and sent it in and this time the ball hit the back of the goal. We were 1 goal down but we still had our drive, we were half way in against top of the league and we were playing so well!

At our half time talk Paul gave us some words of advice along with everyone in the team, those who had been on the side line and TJ had seen where we needed to improve, having someone high and big hits into the D, and moving for Hayley during hit outs (South Berks could stop our big hits!).

This chat fired us up and we were ready for the second half, we came out just as strong determined to win the second half.
Our fight to win saw Jess W collide with an opposition player, banging heads and taking Jess out of Play.
We worked hard to pass the ball up to the D and won an attacking short. Pippa pushed in and Jess D stepped up to show us her brilliant hit, unfortunately it didn’t find the back of the goal.
The opposition quickly moved the ball down the pitch and we all jumped back to defend. We worked our hardest to clear the balls but the opposition won 3 short corners in a row. Our back line had changed but still cleared all the balls denying South Berkshire of any more goals, Katie ran like lightning to the top of the D each time!
South Berkshire were annoyed now, so much so that one of their players got very physical barging Helen out of the way, our umpires were not going to allow this though and that player received a green card.
We continued to work hard for the last few minutes but were unable to even the score, However a final score of 1-0 to South Berkshire, top of the league is a score to be proud of. And Helen very deservedly was awarded man of the match.