ICHC Ladies 1s battle UCL rivals

Ready for a re-match with long-time rivals UCL, we got to Harlington early, and had a good strategy session with Coach Oli, only slightly distracted by the un-named players who wouldn’t keep their shirts on. Ears ringing with assertions that we should play defensively and win with superior numbers behind the ball, we had a good warm up and prepared to play running into strong wind.

With one or two early forays into UCL’s defensive half, we quickly discovered that actually following advice and playing the way that Oli had wanted us to all season paid some dividends as we were able to capitalise on UCL’s mistakes. The other side of this was that play was 90% in our own half of the pitch, with defence under constant pressure to keep UCL out. Keeping up with some of the more boisterous UCL forwards was tricky, and the defending mids and forwards looked a bit lost, but our defensive line was rock-solid, keeping out repeated long and short-corners, even a couple of passable attempts at drag-flicks (she managed to get it in the air and towards the goal).

Suffering bruised feet and barely-working lungs at the back, it was with much relief that mids and forwards got used to defending and organisation fell into place, leaving UCL continuously frustrated in their attacking efforts.

The score at 0-0, we emerged from a freezing half-time talk determined to keep up the good work and discipline. With UCL now playing into the wind and rain, we got more aggressive, and more balls made it out to forwards Hayley and Sorcha. Despite best efforts, they were unable to run through oppo defence on their own and our strategy showed it’s weaknesses with UCL continuing to dominate pressure, though not possession, in our half. One particularly interesting attack saw a slow lob heading for the net over keeper Purcy’s head, but was denied with a “graceful” vertical jump that saw the ball knocked off the back line from near the crossbar.

Showing that we were still in this game, IC did manage to get the ball up the pitch and Hazman capitalised on UCL’s bored and frozen defence to achieve a deflection off of their stick, and into the goal over their keepers head. Our elation was short-lived. With a crack in our disciplined play, UCL made it back into our half and got off a cracking shot from top D into the far corner of the net before defence or keeper could react. Both sides struggled for goal attempts in the remaining minutes, but the whistle went before our attacking short could be blown, and the game finished 1-1.

Though disappointed that we had not kept them out entirely, we impressed ourselves with one of the best games we’ve played this season, and certainly the most disciplined. This was reflected in MoM nominations for nearly every player, though ultimately awarded to left-back Emma. With a win, loss and now a draw behind us, we hope to beat UCL convincingly if we meet them again in the LUSL cup final. This rivalry needs to be sorted once and for all!