COWHC Ladies' 1s vs Sunbury & Walton Hawks Ladies' 1s - 08th Oct 2016

It was a breezy Sunday afternoon when we travelled out east, far beyond the use of Oyster cards, to not-so-sunny Sunbury. Due to a variety of injuries and reasons we were a squad of a dozen. But no matter (who needs subs anyway?), we were coming off a win and playing the team at the bottom of the division so our hopes were high.

The Hawks were a sturdy bunch with a few strong players who dominated and coached from the field. In a fairly even and uneventful first 35 minutes we entered half time with an even-if-not-frustrating nil-nil.

In the second half the short game worked well and we carried the ball up and made their defence work much harder. Sharon, Krysy, Rachel and Lorraine put lots of mileage on their fit bits with running and then back again for defence.

There were multiple literal run-ins with opponents (Alex got very friendly with their sweeper by running her over a couple times….her fault for getting in the way of the charge to the goal) but unfortunately a really hard knock sent Rachel flying and off for the rest of the match (hope you’re feeling better!). Not too long after one of the bandana-wearing opponents was also sent off – this time with a card for continuing to remain within 5 meters of our free hits.

The opposition was awarded a short corner (and even they argued for us saying they did not believe it should have been a short). Unfortunately, they converted to get on the board making the match 1 – 0.

We fought to make it even - there were more aggressive attacks with the midfielders coming up (some very nice runs up from Alex, Emma and LBell) and even the defence were dribbling right on up there (looking at you Lena).

It was a frustrating finale, but thanks to fantastic goalkeeping from Mrs B and solid defence from Lena, Xanthe and Dicko it was capped at that.

Perhaps the best takeaway from the match was the discovery of how incredibly (potentially dangerously) cheap drinks at the Hawk clubhouse is! Next time G&T’s for everyone!!

POM votes: 1 for Emer, Lena and Emma; 1.5 for Sharon W, 2.5 for LBell; 3 for Mrs B; 4 for the win was Alex!

MOM was Emer (for forgetting the 5m rule not once, but twice)

Squad: Lorraine, Rachel, Krysy, Sharon, Alex, Emer, Emma, Lisa, Xanthe, Katy, Lena, Mrs B

Thank you to Martin for umpiring and Captain Nicky for sending support from the sidelines.