COWHC Ladies 1s vs Wayfarers - 10 October 2015

Not quite so Zip-a-Dee-doo-Dah today, but not a complete disaster. At 2-0 down after 10 minutes we were teetering on the edge of the abyss ... But the mighty warriors of COWHC dug deep into their reserves of fighting spirit to come back at 'em. Wayfarers were well-drilled and fast; front-marking was essential, as was the determination to hold our space and not be barged into oblivion. Andrea and Rachel picked up where they left off last week, tirelessly switching up front to create space. The midfield bore the brunt of Wayfarers' physical approach and it was altogether a tougher day for them than the acres of space that Guildford kindly granted them last week. The umpires made their feelings clear, which added to the frisson of the encounter. The defence's clear communication meant they contained the opposition attack, and Sharon had a busy afternoon after the empty tumbleweed 7 days ago. We held Wayfarers to a 0-0 draw for approx 60 minutes of the game; they scored a final minute goal to give them a 3-0 victory and we left the pitch bloodied (Alex), bruised (Becky), slightly surprised at having been victimised (Rachel), dragging her soapbox after a feisty defence of Rachel (Andrea), with small shoes (LBell), with random sticks and balls gathered from the wasteland (Dicko) and without drinking any milk (Lena).

Negatives to work on: hit the ground running to avoid having to claw our way back into matches.
Positives to reproduce: our excellent movement off the ball, high ball pace, quick passes and gutsy determination in the face of sustained provocation. Oh, and Lena was on time. And we did not fail to score at any of the short corners we were awarded.

Thanks to Hoops for his simply wise words and for promising that the pub was a "5 minute walk away", and to the Wayfarers first aid kit for supplying us with ice packs and plasters.

The team was Sharon, Netty, Lena, LBell, Santy, Chloe, Dicko, Becky, Alex, Andrea and Rachel.

PoM votes were 0.5 for Dicko, 1 for Rachel, 1.5 for Alex, 2 for LBell and 4 each for Andrea and Becky.