COWHC Ladies 1s vs. Wayfarers 4s 6 February 2016

Oh well, back to reality this week as we faced Wayfarers 4s after back to back euphoric league victories. The match opened in the manner to which we have become accustomed in 2016, with early COWHC pressure. It was end to end stuff but we made the most of it, as we forced the keeper to commit to an early strike and Rachel swooped in to score from the resulting melee. We could have increased our lead, as Nicky put Alex through for a shot, which sneaked just wide. We had control of the play and were pushing hard, when Wayfs equalised from a penalty flick. This led to a period of sustained Wayfarers pressure which we didn't deal with as well as we could; we lost our shape and width and Wayfarers made the most of this. As the first half drew to its dying minutes, we took our foot off the gas and waited for the whistle, unforgivably allowing Wayfarers to go into half time with a 2-1 lead.

The second half was a more structured affair as we regrouped and tried to fight our way back. Wayfarers scored again, but we pulled back a goal as the Wayfarers keeper deflected Alex's short corner strike into the net. We had more opportunities to score - notably 2 from the plucky Chloe, who made a valiant attempt to deflect in a wide short corner strike and also converted a late shot into the goal, but unfortunately via her knee first. In the meantime, Wayfarers scored another to give them a 4-2 lead.

This remained an end to end encounter until the final whistle, and the Mighty COWs fought through to the end. Nicky wove her magic and Lena returned to defence with her none-shall-pass tackling. Emma was a calm presence in defence, and Santy stuck to her player like glue. It wasn't the outcome we wanted, but we will learn to respond to different phases of a match: when to push hard in attack and when to batten down the hatches and focus on mopping up sustained pressure. Onwards and upwards, everyone.

Thanks to Mikey B for umpiring, to Lorraine, Duncs and Harriet for supporting us on the sideline, and to Hoops for geeing us up through to the final whistle.

The team was: Kate, Lena, LBell, Dicko, Santy, Chloe, Rachel, Becky, Alex, Nicky, Amelia and Emma.

PoM votes were: 1 each for Santy and Becky, 2 for Emma, 3.5 for Alex and 4.5 for Nicky - PoM for the second week running!