Ladies 1s took on Amersham & Chalfont’s 1s away from home this Saturday 23rd November. Whilst always a tough place to visit, Maidenhead’s ladies kept a level head and put in a performance to be proud of in what was a very eventful game.

As has been the trouble in the past few fixtures, we had a poor start, conceding one goal from a breakaway caused by a misplaced 16 and another from a dubious penalty flick. On the back foot so soon in the game, it would have been easy to lose hope.

Yet the ladies pressed on, scoring a fantastic team goal which began with a ball down the left flank from Kate Addison to Eddie Westacott, who got the ball into the D to Issy Harris-Evans. Issy was able to pass the ball in a congested area to Sarah Fuller, who expertly slotted the ball past their goalkeeper.

The team were overjoyed when birthday girl Hannah Stone received the ball on the penalty spot. She calmly transferred the ball to her reverse and dinked the ball into the net, bringing Maids level.

A combination of mistakes on the right side of the pitch led to A&C scoring their third goal of the game, giving them the impetus going into half time.

The second half brought even more excitement, with Liza Semenko scoring undoubtedly the greatest goal of the season so far, hitting the ball on the reverse into the top of the net. Maidenhead had brought it back to 3-3 and were putting A&C under tremendous pressure.

Trying to hold onto the point, Bex Miall made a fantastic save with her stick on the line; a save any full time goalkeeper would be proud of. Unfortunately, poor game management caused us to concede with just minutes left to play, resulting in a 4-3 loss.

Disheartened to have lost out on what felt like a deserved point, but empowered by our ability to turn what had been another poor start into a close contest, Maidenhead face Wycombe at home this coming Saturday.