MHC Ladies 5s 1 - 0 Thame Ladies 3s

When we first turned up I wasn’t sure we even get to play our match due to an injury in the men’s ones much. The Match before ours was cancelled as we awaited the ambulance. And opposition player had been knocked down and was taken to A&E to check over. I’m happy to report that he’s fine but it did take nearly 2 hours for the ambulance to arrive.

Maybe it was this for the long wait that we haven’t and that’ll start to the match. Thame won first push back and press that’s from the off. Our back line of Katie, Jess D, Sophie M and Hayley have to be on their toes to make sure the opposition didn’t worry Kiera in goal too much.

The match became very piecemeal we would have a great push with some great runs by Rippon, Taylor or Havana but their strong back line would block us. Or we’d take it up the middle and hand it over to the opposition. It was a frustrating game to play and even more to watch. It was like the 5s of old passing the ball to quickly and Thame taking the ball.

Half time couldn’t come soon enough and this gave us an opportunity to take a breath and refocus. A rousing half time speech from the captain helped too.

Thame came out strong but this time we had our heads in the game. We rediscovered our wings and saw some lovely pass out to the wings. We also realised we could use 3d skills to get passed the opposition! Havana proved the master if these in the game but even I managed a few. This started to pay off with a great try from Anjali that went wide my millimetres. Rippon too is never shy in the D and Sophie B and myself had cracks on the goal.

Instead of giving up when we before lost the ball we chased each one down. And it was this determination that paid off. Every ball in the D counted and we got a short off a foot. Before the match we decided to shake up our Short corner routines and this paid off. The ball was slipped left to Sophie B who got low to the ground and powered it in through the melee in front of the goal! Goal!
And another to Sophie’s growing tally!!

Thame replied time and again. We did mostly move back as a team and everyone defended. They had some shots on goal, some wide, some Keira saved and even TJ saved one (must be the goalie in her). We defended hard right to the end in what was a very defensive game.

We all know they are a tough opposition, some of you bear the scars of that, so it was good to get a win.

Man of the match was a close run thing with TJ (for her great work in defence), Havana (for her skill and speed in mid) being beaten by Taylor who had a great match out on the wing. She kept it wide made some nice link ups with the forwards.
Also great play from Anjali, great to see you back and getting stuck in.

We’re still doing well in the league but this week proves we can still loose our cool. So let’s really work hard in our training sessions. Bex is helping us focus on what we need to in a match so whatever we are doing in training has an impact on the pitch on a Saturday.
Ruth (Young) popped along to watch and was very impressed at how much the team has come on.

Good work girls.