Ladies 2's vs Surbiton

I 
Reigate Priory Ladies 2s vs Surbiton 5s
1-0 Reigate makes heavy weather of winning
 
A beautiful sunny day in Reigate heralded a civilised 12.30pm home game at RGS.  The team dribbled in a bit late and lackadaisical.  The latecomers included Rache, who had been in goal for the 1s first thing, Lucy at a juniors netball tournament and Bridget delayed because Jess needed to put in her contact lenses. We had attracted quite a crowd.  The Mens 1s, who were playing after us, all turned out to show us their support, plus Colin and Hetti’s Dad. Many thanks guys.
Surbiton had been a formidable oppo the first time we played them but we had come away with a nice 4-2 win after some great Reigate hockey and solid goals back in November.  We were feeling confident.  From first push back they came at us. Their team had changed quite a bit from the one we played in November with lots of new young players who were fit and had silky skills. With our average age being approximately 35, we were struggling.  The first half saw us in their D and shooting on target frequently.  We weren’t finding the backboard, however, as their goalie went to ground every time and we couldn’t seem to lift it over her. They had quite a few shorts at our end but didn’t slot any away.  Woolfy’s knee suddenly went and she had to carried off the pitch, ouch! Take care of it Woolfy. After a number of her attempts were saved, Lucy eventually managed to volley a semi-strike from Rose into the top left hand corner about five minutes before half time. Phew, we were off the blocks, 1-0.
Half time came and we had Sally to give us the stats of the first half: they’d had shorts, we’d had none; it was pretty equal in terms of coming into the oppo’s D; but we’d had more shots on goal and they had all been on target. All to play for – word of the half, FIGHT!
The second half saw Reigate start to struggle as the heat rose and tempers frayed. The team didn’t seem to be gelling as we have done all season.  The right wing wasn’t quite as strong as normal, they were quick to close us down on the left and we were trying to go through them up the middle.  If we’d been on our game we’d have been able to play around them but it just wasn’t working for us on Saturday. The first twenty minutes of the second half didn’t see us get out of our end. It was looking desperate as Surbiton had about 12 short corners in quick succession. Somehow we managed to see them off due in no small part to awesome keeping by man of the match, Camilla, in goal. My particular favourite was the Beckham-esque chest up followed by half volley kick out of the D. Impressive.
Normally we only have to dig in for the last five minutes at the back but it seemed that the whole team was back defending our lead and we couldn’t get it out and up the field. Somehow we held on but all of us came off the pitch knowing we didn’t play our best and that we’d been lucky.
Next week we’re going to bring our A game. Watch out Cheam.