COWHC Ladies 2s vs Epsom Ladies 5s - 14th Oct 2017

Match report for ladies 2's away vs Epsom on 14/10 is bought to you courtesy of Qantas cattle class flight Q8008 LHR to Melbourne. Obviously with 30 hours to spare, there are only so many movies I can watch, so I get the pleasure of writing said report for my last match for my beloved COWS.

Preparation for this week's match started early at practice with Roachie giving Lisa some handy coaching from behind.

There were also the important tasks: 1) vital team research on opponents, which was carried out by COWS Chief Strategic Analyst - Louise. 2) a lengthy debate on whether to stay for teas or not depending on how crap they were. For the latter we opted for post match drinking instead. The intel that came through was that there was a 14 yo who scores loads and someone named Boo (is that even a name?), who had to be taken out. Epsom had won 3 from 3, so we knew we had to play strong as a team.

Advice from El Cappo was to have a quiet night in, given the lunch time slot. This advice was heeded by all except me, who was in fact a dirty stop out #DOM.

The Epsom pitch was slow and hard (usually how we like it), but on this warm day, too hard and too slow. Poppy and Naomi turned up late (at least they came, unlike our shiny new white shirts which didn't arrive in time #fedexareshite).

We were keen to show our stuff and the first 10 minutes we dominated their 25 with some confident stick to stick passing. However the game soon levelled out and both teams had a few shots on goal but none capitalised. It became apparent we were grateful for 2 subs as keeping up with young legs was taking it's toll so we were clever to roll every 5-7 mins to ensure time to catch breath. Naomi ran her heart out with some blazing runs in the midfield and it was great to have the return of Forsh from mat leave who added a boost to out opportunities up front.

We managed to score first off a reverse stick by Andrea towards goal that was picked up by Sharon off the right post and into the backboard. After a short celebration, we kept the eye on the prize to ensure we held firm.

Half time and a positive talk and calls to get the ball wide.

The match continued as the first half, with chances both ways, however around 10 mins in Epsom scored their first goal to even the score line.
Even though there was some amazing play, notably Netty staunchly stopping a goal on the line, Maddy making her debut with some clever defensive play, some strong runs from steam train Poppy we were unable to find the backboard.

The match ended 1 - 1. Obviously not a win, but a marked improvement and a very slick and confident performance that we can all be proud of. Even the oppo commented on how much better we were than last time!!

POM - Maddy
Thanks to Nicky W for umpiring and Lou for supporting.
Over and out and love and will miss you all dearly xxx Broni (aka Bony)