Ladies’ 5s fight for first win of the season

It was a slimmer team than normal that went to Cantley Park at the end of the day on Saturday. For the L5s, a late 430pm pushback at a venue they had never won at was not ideal. Further it was a relatively new squad that were still getting used to playing together, we were missing Kelly, who was saving herself for her Big Run the following day, and Sherene, who had abandoned us in favour of a wedding and was halfway through a barrel of lager by the time we started. We also lost Katie last minute but thankfully were able to persuade Carys to step in and help us out.

The pre match chat was short - with only two subs it was a case of doing your best, take a break when you need, keep possession as long as you could and work as a team. We got off to a good start with some aggressive attacking play and our triangles worked well. South Berks had a similar profile team to us with some talented youngsters, but our equally talented squad was well up to them. We put together some really nice play linking from defenders to attackers. It was a great slap from Lizzie into the D that was worked around the defenders giving Charlotte the opportunity to pop the ball into the net. Our first goal of the season and we were ahead! We held our lead in the first half 1-0. In the second half South Berks came out really strongly and they quickly pulled us out of shape, putting us on the defensive and we conceded a goal after persistent attacking play by them. Keeping our heads up we went on the attack again and good work from the attacking 6 (Cat, Charlotte, Lizzie, Jess, Monica and Sophie) led a series of short corners Even though most were unsuccessful (one to practice I think!), we finally were able to pass ball around the D and Lydia on the far post slotted it in. 2-1 ahead.

The final ten minutes left in the match was all rather frantic. We were tired and desperate to keep ahead, and South Berks were pushing hard to equalise. It wasn’t pretty, it was very scrappy and possibly we made it much harder than we needed to, but the defending 6 (Becky, Carys, Evie, Jane, Lydia & Susan) together with Linda in goal, who made some awesome saves, stepped up again and we came away victorious with three points. A great result, achieved through working hard as a team.

Evie was named man of the match for her very consistent hard work and play in the midfield.