COWHC Ladies 1s vs. Wayfarers 4s - 31 October 2015

A few weeks ago we played a bad tempered match against Wayfarers 5s and they came away with the 3 points. By a quirk of the league, Wayfarers 4s are in the same division and so we faced the same club again ... The outcome could not have been more different.

As the sun blazed down, we absorbed all the early pressure and didn't panic when Wayfarers pushed us deep into our defensive half. Carefully we took our time to work out our marking and we stuck tight to those players throughout the game. Emma in defence was a superb example of this, communicating clearly and confidently to ensure the danger was relentlessly mopped up. This was another example of a Saturday when everyone brought their best game with them, and the excellent umpiring helped the game to flow smoothly. Sharon fought off a number of sorties from Wayfarers and she was helped on the line by all the defence in turn. Lena, LBell and Santy all showed their most persistent tackling and ran into super space, particularly when Wayfarers adopted their far faraway press at our 16s in the first half. In midfield, Chloe battled face to face with her opposite number to win some crucial balls, with Andrea running defiantly on the right hand side and Alex and Becky finding space in the middle to supply attacking balls to the forward line. The returning Livy was a strong force in attack, winning us possession in important positions; she was ably supported by Rachel and Emma who ran tirelessly to upset the momentum of the Wayfarers defence. The outcome was a hard fought 0-0 draw. We were pleased with this result: both teams could have scored in the game but a point is a point is a point and we are not in a position in the league to argue with that!

This was a real confidence-booster of a game. We showed we could defend repeated short corners; we showed we could absorb pressure for long periods of the game; we showed that passing the ball backwards is just as effective as relentlessly trying to pass it forwards; we showed just how easy it is to outwit the opposition with small triangles; we showed that running to meet the ball will always reap rich rewards; we showed that hockey is a team game and 11 people on form is an immensely powerful tool. And we showed that if you make contact with a short corner strike you are much more likely to score than doing an air shot.

Thanks to Martin for umpiring, to Hoops for excellent words of encouragement and to the sun for forcing us to play in unseasonably hot late October temperatures.

The team was: Sharon, Lena, Emma S, Emma F, Santy, LBell, Chloe, Andrea, Alex, Becky, Livy and Rachel.

PoM votes were 1 for Lena, 2 for LBell, 2.5 for Alex, 3 for Andrea and a very well deserved 5.5 for Emma.