Good win in the cold sunshine!

On a brisk Sunday morning the development side put in a strong performance to beat Camberley 4-0.

With the luxury of having four subs, we were able to swap players around, but that did not seem to disrupt us as it has done before. I think mainly because the girls started the game wide awake, and injected pace from the off. We combined some lovely passing moves to create early opportunities and we saw a few shots whistle past the post.

Some of that early pressure, soon resulted in a goal for Maidenhead. Lucy T started and finished her own goal, with a drive from the left side of midfield into the D, where a slip pass to Sophie L came back to her and she finished with a lovely lifted flick to the left of the goalkeeper. That seemed to settle a few nerves and with Deia distributing the ball very calmly and accurately around the pitch, we started to carve open up more opportunities. Although we were dominating it all got a bit static until Lucy T turned on some pace and darted into the area, working space, before hitting a strong finish to the bottom left of the keeper to make it 2-0. At this stage the left side of our forward five was taking all the plaudits.

Camberley broke back and we had a few moments of chaos to deal with in defence, but Delfina and Lydia both covered their wings and Lauren had another strong game at centre back, snuffing out any attacks before they really got going. When Camberley did create a shooting chance Phoebe delivered some excellent saves, dominating the D, and producing by far the best game she has had for the side, which in turn kept the score to 2-0 and gave everyone else some more confidence.

In the second half, we changed a few players around but we managed to keep our rhythm, and the right hand side of the pitch got stuck in. Tara H, Hannah Sheikh and Izzie Purdie stopped multiple line clearances from Camberley allowing us to go straight onto the attack, Izzie Purdie in particular going on a a number of mazy runs, but crucially also with the presence of mind to look up and try to thread through a pass to the forwards.

On one of these occasions when the ball broke to Deia ( now playing up front..), she drew her opposing player at pace, and made a lovely throughball to Emily B, who ran into the box and had the confidence to drive at their keeper and score with a lovely low finish to make it 3-0.

At this point all of Wednesdays shooting practice after the Oxford game seemed to be paying off, however the girls saved the very best goal till last. A fast break was created by Hannah Sheikh winning the ball, pushing it up to Izzie P, who in turn released Emily high and wide on the right, Emily drove to the byline and dragged the ball back to the P-spot, where Lucy T was lurking to finish it first time and grab her hat-trick. It was a really well worked goal and the team should be very proud of it, and hopefully can replicate it!!

Finally a quick note to commend Lydia for her bravery. In the last play of the game, learning from Lauren and Sophie's early fine examples, Lydia sprinted from the goal line on a Camberley short Corner and as the Camberley player lifted her stick to strike, ignored the danger and nipped the ball away, took an extra neat touch and cleared the ball up to our forwards , taking out of the game size opposition players in the process.

Therefore, the Bravery medal of the day goes to Lydia, notable mentions to Deia, Izzie P, Lauren and Phoebe. However this weeks player of the game was Lucy Thornton, described by the opposition coach as a ,"real playmaker"! Lucy played the game at real pace and applied tenacity and a lot of great skill. Her hat-trick was well deserved and hopefully she can bag a few more in the rest of the season.