Oxford Hawks Women’s 2’s vs Oxford City 1’s – 12.10.24

The eagerly anticipated derby day had arrived, and Hawks were raring to go! Until they got a bit tired after a warm up which included a rather steep hill. But it didn't seem to affect their start, and they put lots of early pressure on the Oxford goal. Tiny and Kathryn linked up beautifully in front of goal but Poultry's shot was well saved by the Oxford keeper. Moments later, Lexie did some magical skills down the left, possibly starting in her own half, and ended up winning a penalty corner. After some confusion at the top over the words "stop" and "slap", Minners decided to take matters into her own hands and just smashed the ball into the goal: 1-0. Oxford definitely put the 2s under pressure with Scraggle's cousin being very speedy up front, but the 2s defence were superb. And the odd one that got through met the Rock of Ruby - nothing was getting past her today. (A thoroughly deserved MOM after some cracking saves - lovely to get a clean sheet too!) About five minutes after coming on the pitch, the umpires decided Henri needed a little break, after perhaps not her finest tackle. And somehow this unlocked the floodgate of cards, with plenty of us (and a few of them) having a little sit down through the game just to keep it interesting. At some point in the first half, Captain Kirk-by did a lovely slidey short corner which Reaney somehow managed to deflect into the goal: 2-0 at half fime.

Early into the second half, Big Foot Scraggle put the game to bed with her first EVER league goal for Hawks. I find that hard to believe but she seems adamant! Lovely short corner strike: 3-0. The game was pretty much done and dusted by this point, but the Rock of Ruby still had plenty to do, with a string of truly outstanding saves. And the whole of the 2s defence wasn't giving up a clean sheet easily either - Dan pulling out some cracking 'key moment' tackles. Libby, Lexie and Jess all deserve a shout out in this match report - as they were all superb. I wish we still did MOM voting on paper as I would have snuck in votes for all of them. But I can't really get away with that on Whatsapp. About ten minutes from the end April Bedfordshire did a lovely bit of skill followed by a lovely wee finish on her reverse stick, going in off the post: 4-0. Which is how it ended - a very good day out for the 2s.