Maidenhead Girls U18s 2 Spencer 3 England Hockey Cup – Fourth Round

Remarkably, we had just been awarded our first penalty corner of the game, but, sadly Izzy’s well-struck shot fizzed just past the post…and that was the end of our exciting Cup run.
The fact the game was still in the balance, right up to the final moments, was proof that all our girls had put in a brave, battling performance against a strong and skilful Spencer team.
After high-scoring successes on the road in the previous two rounds, everyone was confident that home advantage could help carry us into the quarter-finals of the prestigious national competition.
With the addition of Gaby and Elise from our Ladies’ section top teams, we launched the first attack and watched in anticipation as Lucy set herself to fire off another of her trademark reverse stick shots. But, despite being so deadly in previous games, this time her shot went high over the bar.
From then on – for the next 20 minutes - the Londoners took control, attacking at pace with slick passing and plenty of possession.
We had already survived several penalty corner scares before they scored in the eighth minute when a shot flicked high over an advancing Varnie in goal and another attacker followed up to tap home.
Four minutes later the visitors doubled their lead with another break and a cleaner finish past our goalie. In fairness, Varnie, pulled off a succession of one-on-one saves to keep us in the game as we weathered the Spencer storm.
Slowly we started to get to grips in midfield where Tori and Emily worked hard closing-down their opposite numbers and we started to win the odd battles and push ourselves further up the pitch.
However, we needed a goal to show for our improved efforts and it came just before half-time from Lucy who showed all her skill and determination in the D before rifling the ball home across their ‘keeper into the far post.
But, while Lucy produced the fabulous finish, it was real team effort for the goal. Annabel had made a last-ditch tackle on the edge of our D to win possession and start the move and then Erin, in attack, had raced to stop the ball from going over the back-line and crossed into the D.
With renewed confidence we started brightly in the second half with Tilly having two quick shots blocked by the Spencer ‘keeper’s pads. Then Lucy caused more trouble on the right and a falling Maisie bundled the ball home to at the far post to put us back on level terms.
The game felt much more even now. Gaby and Izzy looked solid in central defence, Lucy and Elise linked neatly in midfield and our front-line including Hannah and Yasmin hassled and harried their defenders into making mistakes.
That said, I lost count of the number of penalty corners Spencer won and the number of saves - both diving low and flinging her hands up high – Varnie pulled off.
Eventually one had to go in and – following another dive to her right – a Spencer forward got there first to get the rebound and secure the win.
Despite the disappointment of being knocked out of the Cup, there were plenty of positives from our determined performance by every member of the squad. Rather than being over-run by a superior side in the first half, we dug in, battled back and very nearly pulled off a cup shock.
We still have Home Counties League games to look forward to, so keep your eyes on Pitchero for fixture dates in March.