Ladies 5's against Banbury

This week against Banbury we didn't seem to have our heads in the game. We only had 2 subs and they seemed to have loads more - and it really started to show in the second half.

We started pretty strong, with Maddie Todd making a good run and then we kept a lot of the play up in their half - we had a lot of shots from Sophie B and Charlotte but we couldn't seem to get anything past their keeper, who made our lives very difficult.
There was a lot of really good runs up the right, with Elouise and Helen working hard to make those shots possible.
We had 3 attacking shorts in quick succession but didn't manage to score with any of them.

Banbury started to push higher up the pitch and putting pressure on our defence really using the couple of very quick attackers they had but we managed to keep it out of the D. Unfortunately they kept that pressure on and got a short - we were quick off the line but they managed to slip it past us and into the goal.

We tried very hard to retaliate with more shots from Sophie B and Lindsey but their keeper managed to keep it out.

Our second half was not as good as our first. We were really lacking in urgency this match and it showed.
They started out by driving into the circle and though we tried to counter attack, they got back and earned a short which we defended but they managed to keep the pressure on and scored.

We came back and pushed into their end and got a short but were once again denied a goal. We drove it back in and got another short that the keeper kicked out strongly - we picked it back up and Hayley ran it all the way up the pitch.
This continued for a while, with us keeping it up in their end but just not being able to actually score despite getting two more shorts.

We got a defensive short that we managed to keep out - Charlotte took it and ran down the right wing, followed by a drive down the left wing from TJ.

Jess did a really good job at putting the ball up and working on calling it before she hit. One of these went to Charlotte who took it in and did a great reverse hit that the keeper once again saved. We got a long that we managed to keep up with some great shadowing from Lindsey to keep them in a corner.

Our defending stayed very tight and Kiera made some excellent saves. Jess took a great hit out that went all the way up to Sophie B, who crossed it across to Charlotte who took an incredible shot at goal - the keeper had to dive full length and just tipped it out with her stick.

The final score was 2-0 to Banbury and Kiera got a very well-deserved Man of the Match.
We really need to work on our focus and on scoring goals! We should've had at least one!

Happy birthday to Anj.

Match report written by TJ