A Match of Two Halves!

Posted on behalf of Match Day Reporter (and player!) Jess Stewart.

It was a fairly muggy day when 11 of the Ladies 2s met at St Bede’s for their first home league game of 2013/14. Wanderers were there with a squad of 16 and on the back of their 5-1 win the week before. We’d had a disappointing start to the season with an undeserved loss to Barnes Vets away after a very early start the week before, but we were going to go out positively from push back and go for it even without subs. Kaz gave a rousing pre-match talk with the word of the day being ‘Win’.

From the first whistle, Reigate took control of the game, with the new formation seeming to be giving us the advantage. We looked sharp and spent the majority of the first 20 minutes in their half before Hetti finally converted a rebound off the keeper’s pads with excellent quick reactions. Confidence was high and we continued to play the ball around the park, keeping possession and stretching the oppo’s defence. Hetti did run after run up the right wing before crossing it in, Ang, Karen and Bridget mastered the midfield and Freya kept pushing forward with the ball. We spent a lot of time in the D and came away with quite a few short corner opportunities. Kaz scored from the top of the D off one of the shorties, drilling it into the bottom right of the goal. This was followed shortly by Ali K, who was slipped a beautiful ball by Stacy, allowing her plenty of time to wind up a big hit that slammed into the backboard.

We were 3-0 up going into half time. Play was fluid and everyone was working well within the formation. Mike had come down to act as our coach for the day and his half time talk consisted of, ‘keep doing what you’re doing!’.

However, two completely different teams came out after half time. Wanderers had got it together and had put in place a strategy to break through our press. We, on the other hand, were shattered. Shape was lost in the press as we got progressively more tired and the legs didn’t move quite so freely but we dug in to slog it out and defend our lead.

Woolfy kept going on the right hand side, feeding the ball up. Kaz had a cracking game defending the goal. Sally, who had only had to make one save in the first half, had a busy time in the second. And Jess (C’est moi) hurt her knee a bit when she fell over. When we played our game and kept possession with tight triangles and safe passes we did work it up the field and had some chances on goal. Ali K was taken out by a defender in front of the goal and fell badly, hurting her hip. She wasn’t able to really play on properly but stayed on the pitch to keep numbers up, trooper.

They did manage to break through our formation at one point and were rewarded with a goal. Otherwise, we scrapped it out at the back with the midfield coming back to help. Getting it out and up the pitch was more of a problem as we all tired. Nevertheless, we won and it was a good win against the top of the league!! If we train hard and bring out the hockey from our first half, the Ladies 2s will be a side to be reckoned with this year.