Hockey Womens 1’s win again

For the first match this year it was definitely thermal weather as the Ladies’ 1s went out to play RUMS in the arctic conditions found at Harlington, on a pitch that was nearly frozen, although this didn’t put a damper on our spirits. We were out to get them, as earlier in theseason they had beaten us by a fair few goals to very few in return.

RUMS pressed hard from the start and soon after the match began were awarded a penalty corner, but solid defending from Celia, Maria, Emma and Kirsty meant we cleared the ball easily. Play continued with some good linking passes up the right wing to Hazman, resulting in short corners for us, although we were unable to convert. Sorcha was on a roll as she continuously took the ball and dribbled past their defenders, and great play from Kathryn and Anna up front meant we had lots of shots and a few near misses on goal. We worked hard to keep the ball in our possession and in our half of the pitch.

The goal came just before half time, when an unmarked Bryony saw a space in the D and ran in. The ball was passed back to Celia who sent it in and a deflection from Bryony put the ball through the keepers’ legs and into the back of the goal. Textbook finish. We were 1-0 up.

After half time, we knew RUMS would be out to attack, but man marking of their key player meant they got more and more frustrated and the ball didn’t get through. Defenders Kirsty and Emma kept strong to prevent their forwards from having chances to score, and beautiful distribution from Celia at the back meant we had more and more chances at their end of the pitch.

Breakaways in the second half meant that Kathryn had some one-on-one situations with the goalie and close chances on goal. We had our captain Gigi back for the last 15 minutes of the game, who worked well linking passes down the right with Maria and Hazman, but strong defending from the RUMS side meant our chances were saved.

With great play from the whole team, the final score was 1-0. Hopefully our winning streak will continue this term, and more goals will be scored. Good luck ladies!