Sweet victory as the second half of the season kicks off....

From player reporter Jess Stewart:

Although the Ladies 2s has had a great season so far, there is one team that has beaten us – Barnes Vets. It was the first league game we played back in September. So, this Saturday, everyone turned up very much wanting to put that right. We had a few of our usual players missing due to air traffic control problems, injuries and availability but we had a sub and a good gang of supporters; players from the Ladies 1s, Ali K running the sideline and a couple of boyfriends and husbands. Bring it on!

Barnes had first push back and came straight at us. They meant business and we knew that they would be keen to recreate that win to topple us from our position at the top of the league – which we have held for the past month and will now keep hold of over Christmas!

Reigate seemed to be trying to force it and was rushing to hit the ball instead of building play patiently. We needed to relax and play our game and the chances would come. It was a pretty evenly matched game because of this and everyone seemed to be panicking a little. They are a good side with a lot of experience, as you’d imagine, but Reigate has played much better against better teams so we were all a bit disappointed with our performance in the first half. There were lots of shorts at both ends – we thought they had scored at one point but Jez’s excellent umpiring eye spotted the foul. We’d been let off the hook.

We went into half time with no score and we were all feeling a bit disheartened. Kaz’s speech focused on the fact that we needed to play possession hockey, not just hit and hope, create more width and to keep our heads. 3, 2, 1 FOCUS!

We went out after the break more together and working better as a team. Clare was centre mid and playing both a great attacking and defending game. The left worked well with Issy, Bridget, Rach and Hetti using the width and causing their defenders difficulty. Woofly had a cracking game anchoring the right side of the pitch and moving the ball up to Karen and Lucy consistently for them to run it in. Rose kept the pressure on at centre forward. We were grafting and wanted something for our efforts!

We had many more opportunities on goal in the second half and most were on target. Barnes’ goalie is pretty handy and kept them all out. Even stopping Rach’s powerful strike with her stick in mid-air. About 15 minutes from time, Lucy smashed a ball across the D and Rose connected with a beautiful touch that for once beat the keeper. There was an audible cheer and then a sigh of relief. We now had to hold them.

As seems to happen, Camilla, Kaz and Jess, ably assisted by backs Woolfy and Bridget (who I think was actually an inner but came back to help), spent the last three minutes dug in at the back trying to wind the clock down with sensible possession hockey. We kept them out with skill and determination and a very hard fought 1-0 win was ours! So it was home for showers and the donning of Christmas jumpers for the Ladies 2s Christmas Social. The bubbles tasted so much sweeter after that win.