Four points clear at the top! Just…

From Ladies 2 Anchorwoman Jess Stewart:

Another Saturday, another early start for an away game. This week was the top of the table clash between Reigate and Cheam; if we won we would go four points clear, if they won they would lead by one point. All to play for.

It was a cold, crisp autumn morning with lots of lovely sunshine. Great, unless you are facing into it for a 10am push back. We warmed up well and Kaz’s opening talk made it quite clear that this was going to be our toughest match yet. They really wanted to beat us and we were going to have to fight for every ball. So of course, word of the day was ‘fight’. They had hundreds of subs and supporters. We had one sub and a couple of noisy (!) bystanders in Lucy’s fiancé, Mike, and her Mum – thank you and well done for standing in the cold for an hour and a half!!

It was their push back and they ran it straight at us – these guys meant business. We have really started to work the formation well and coped with their attacks, with it only very occasionally coming through our press or halfs in the first 35 minutes. We were controlling possession and couldn’t believe it when Ali K scored in the 6th minute! This boosted our confidence and we were playing our game cooly. Lucy was commanding the central midfield with Woolfy, Emma (back from her hols and smiling throughout) and Harriet helping her work it up to our front line.
It was fairly evenly matched and Cheam’s three playmakers were trying hard to get one back. Our backs did a good job of closing them down and the halfs came back well to help. We are definitely fitter than we were. Woolfy went down at one point as she twisted her knee badly and had to go off to recover.

As we approached the break, Freya scored our second goal. Yay, we were 2-0 up going into half time!!

We came out for the second half knowing that we would have to concentrate and fight to keep our lead. We gave away a few shorts at the re-start. We kept the first out but they scored the second with a great shot from the top of the D. Lucy took the ball from the push back and sent it wide to Rose, who ran it right into the D then crossed it to Freya, who slotted it past the keeper less than a minute later. 3-1, the battle of wills was on with both teams playing hard.

We had a short awarded about 15 minutes from time, which Kaz struck beautifully to give us a 4-1 lead. For the majority of the second half the wings worked really well, Lucy kept driving forward, outclassing people with her silky skills, and getting the ball up to Karen and Bridge and the front line of Ali K, Freya and Rose. Everyone had a good game. Though, we were all a little surprised at one point to see Ali K running around in the middle of the park, apparently nobody was using the left wing! ;-)

They couldn’t come back now, could they? We held our nerve, almost to the end, pushing all attacks wide or out. Six minutes from time, a goal-mouth scramble ended with a Reigate assist for a Cheam goal. Then three minutes later an errant goal-hanger got lucky from the far edge of the D and converted from an unbelievable angle. Camilla has since admitted that she might have just edged it in with her elbow by mistake. Suddenly we were 4-3 and two minutes from time. Tense! Out of nowhere a short was given to Cheam… this couldn’t be happening… Jess decided to put her body on the line and take out the injector to avoid a repeat of the previous week’s goal at the death from Surbiton. Again, Cheam sent it top and the striker put it just wide. And breath! We watched the clock down and eventually the whistle went. Phew! A 4-3 win by the skin of our teeth. Let’s not make it so difficult for ourselves next time, chaps.

Some of the team, I promised not to name names, thought we had drawn. Sally - we may need to work some counting training into Tuesday evenings… Positives are short corners, press, using the back pass more, running into and creating space and supporting each other on and off the pitch. Come on the 2s!