Hawks L4s v Sonning L2 – three points at last!

Hawks Ladies’ 4s were due a bit of good luck after consistently improving performances in recent weeks, and it came our way on a chilly Sunday at Sonning HC.

We faced the mid-league Sonning 2s in a rearranged fixture from December. The Hawks squad has had a tricky season with reasonable scoring opportunities but no score lines going our way. We fielded a great team of 15, having played at home the day before with 16 (all those cancelled December games seem to have reduced the January injuries, if nothing else!) Becky gave an inspiring team talk around a slightly worrying nosebleed (an omen?!) and then we were off.

We opened the game by stealing the ball from Sonning’s pushback, but a period of good pressure yielded no goals, and we quickly conceded when Sonning turned over the ball and broke fast. 1-0 down - so far, so familiar.

Hawks rallied quickly, and the play went end to end for a while, with some excellent defending from Becky, Carys, Suzy and Jess, and saves by Charlie. A string of speedy passes from the midfield gave us controlled pressure, and we won a series of short corners. Catherine picked up an open stick stop, shot for the right post, and found Nele who finished superbly to give us the equaliser.

Sonning responded quickly but were stymied by excellent defending and fast-paced balls from the Hawks mids to find the forwards Nele, Wunmi, Caz, and Kim. We narrowly missed a few more opportunities to score, but took that as a positive development!

We went into half time at 1-1, proud of coming back from behind. The second half stayed goalless for quite a while, but strong umpiring kept a lid on some slightly overexcited play from both teams. Rom and Catherine did great work in the centre, distributing and disrupting, and inners and mids worked their socks off to close down Sonning play and provide outlets for the Hawks attack.

The second goal from Hawks came with about 15 to go, and built from Flo’s superb skills in inner, good movement from Flora, Nele, and Evie, and a cracking finish from Kelly who put away a great team goal.

The Hawks side managed to hang on to the narrow 2-1 lead with more experienced heads calling for “game management” and brilliant tactical support from Mark. Charlie was voted player of the match for some brilliant saves and superb organisation of the defence. Well done, Hawks! And enormous thanks to the many supporters who had faith in our ability to bring home three points!!