ICHC Womens 1s win against all odds

On the very cold afternoon on Wednesday the 5th December we went out to face a team that had not only beaten but really thrashed us at the beginning of the season 7-0. It was not an exciting prospect with a captain Gigi having now become captain hook and only able to watch from the side-lines after breaking her hand a few weeks ago. We have also been struggling though a few injuries and were depleted due to the usual end of term deadlines. But we set out with nothing to lose; at least we looked better than the mottled purple of Portsmouth!

The game started tentatively from both teams with the possession fairly even and staying around the centre of the pitch. With some screaming from the side-line we push on running hard at Portsmouth and forcing them to make some bad tackles giving us some possession in our attacking third, but to no avail. We had some good passes around the back from Celia, Kirsty, Emma and Maria who were able to get the ball down the side-lines allowing Jules, Kirsten and Anna some close break-aways in our attack. We earned an early short-corner but it seems that the naked boys running around the pitch were a distraction to our usual scoring duo and we narrowly missed the goal. Finally we broke their defence with 5 minutes to go of the first half giving Sorcha a one-on-one opportunity against the keeper. Their keeper appeared stunned and didn’t move as Sorcha carefully slotted the ball past her giving the team a miraculous boast as we were unexpectedly ahead! Unfortunately we hadn’t been able to impress the crowd of Men’s 3s who had decided moments earlier to head for showers.

At half-time we knew that Portsmouth would come out attacking, but with our pirate spirits we took to the pitch ready to defend all flanks. Almost immediately they were on the attack but one of their players literally ‘hit-the-deck’ and we had to wait for the injury to be sorted. The second half was a very tough affair but some tight marking of their central midfield by Hazman and fresher Bryony and fresher Hayley took their main strengths out of the game. Some insane interceptions from Celia led to a give-and-go run all the way down the pitch with Sorcha supporting and our resident peg-leg (Celia) almost scoring a fantastic goal from her sweeper position! Needless to say we needed her in defence and she really battled though pain to hold of defending unit together for the rest of the game. We were undoubtedly on the back foot with a relentless attack from the Portsmouth girls. The voices on the side-lines were getting higher and higher as 3 successive goal lines saves were made by Emma and Bryony. Thanks to our very own Will Turner-goalkeeper Purcy was saving us all with her continuous clearances, preventing our ship from sinking!

Our defence managed to hold out until the finalwhistle when we realised that we had won! The entire team played amazingly and all the girls should be so proud of the achievement. This was one of the best team performances we’ve had this year and just shows the distance we have come over the past few months! There were some very merry pirates celebrating in the union later. Hopefully we can carry this spirit into next term with the return of our captain.