COWHC Ladies' 1s vs Spencer Ladies' 5s - 26th November 2016

There I was… ready to pounce out of the goal and put my body on the line for my teammates at a short corner. Unfortunately the opposing injector moved at the speed of a tortoise, and I like the hare, managed to beat her injection off the line. This act of heroism and demonstration of speed, however, did not gain me a medal or trophy. Instead I was awarded the upmost honour of reporting to you, dear reader, our second win of the season.
I would first of all like to dedicate our win to Matt, our sole, undying supporter and team paramedic. I would also like to apologise on behalf of last weeks’ reporter, who ‘forgot’ to mention Matt in last weeks report (unfortunately she only had one man on her mind who couldn’t even make it through the first half, although he did ‘make’ her night so to speak).
So with our team back on top form and our Captain recovered from her short bout of sickness after last Saturday’s antics, we were hunting for a win. It is unclear whether this illness was alcohol induced or caused by an illegally opened Snapchat … ask the men’s 3s. We were bottom of league but ever the optimists we believed in the words of the best show to come out of Essex ‘the only way is up’.
We defended hard and for a really, really, long time. Our 16s actually got through for once, which meant that in amongst all that defending we dominated play for much of the time. Emer, Nicky and Alex provided the support through pivotal play, distributing the ball well. We managed to get the ball from midfield to upfront quite seamlessly which was a shock to all.
So there they were, Rachel and Hannah, in the D searching for that goal opportunity. Apparently Spencer’s defence were also hungry for a goal and stole Hannah’s moment of glory. Rachel slams the ball to the left post, with Hannah ready and waiting to slip it in. In comes Spencer’s defence connecting stick to ball first and guiding it straight past their own goalie and onto the backboard. At this point I think we should send a thank you letter to Spencer for gifting us three much needed points.
With Christmas less then a month away and the first half of the season near to an end let’s say a prayer to the hockey Gods to continue shining the sun brightly into the oppo’s eyes for the first 35 minutes. And let’s hope that with second half hockey being our strong point this applies to the season as well as isolated games.
Lessons to be learnt from this Saturday:
· If I can’t scupper our defensive strategy by passing to the oppo’s centre forward I’ll find another way.
· Don’t expect a match report about hockey when I don’t even know what I’m doing on the pitch half the time.
· Wear white more often so we can win.
· Get out the balls for a tactical chat pre game – apparently we take some of it in.