COWHC Ladies 1s vs Sunbury and Walton Hawks Ladies 2s - 28th January 2017

Sometimes life just isn't fair. You make a winning start in January and the weather snatches away the next 2 fixtures. You play a pretty blameless game of hockey, confident that anyone doing an airshot at a short corner will get all the Muff o' Match votes, but then find yourself penalised for an early (not quite) goal celebration. And that's without me even mentioning anyone scoring a hat-trick and NOT WINNING PLAYER OF THE MATCH.

Any-old-how, it's true to say that all's fair in love and Surrey Div 3, and so we faced Sunbury Hawks in a must win game, determined to overturn the dismal 1-0 loss against the same team before Christmas. We set off hard and had some early chances (including the near miss that prompted my early celebration) but couldn't manage to convert any. Sunbury came back at us in the second quarter and we lost our formation a little but, while we frittered away our passes, Sharon kept us out of trouble in goal. We regrouped over half time and came out with a renewed sense of purpose, stringing together neat passes, courtesy of the large amount of space that Hawks gave us in midfield. Lena was an awesome gatekeeper to neutralise their attacks, with Santy and Dicko also roaming high up the pitch. Nicky put in the miles, despite her perpetually untying shoelace, with Lydia, Emma and LBell keeping the width to stretch the play via Alex in the middle, which all helped to confound the opposition. Up front, Rachel proved it's not a ballet class with her sliding tackles and endless hunting down of her prey. Hannah played with great strength and Andrea worked the angles. Our relentless pressure in the second half bore its dividends and Hannah smashed home the winner for a 1-0 victory to add to the congestion in the middle of the league table. Hooray! Well played everyone, especially PoM Nicky.

The team was Sharon, Lena, Dicko, Santy, Nicky, LBell, Emma, Alex, Hannah, Rachel, Andrea and Lydia.

Thanks to Adam and Jack for umpiring, to Martin for bellowing his support, to Poppy and Vicky for their slightly quieter support, and to Lorraine for delicious jerk chicken teas in the clubhouse.