Ladies’ 8s in great win at Leighton Buzzard

We were down to eight before the match, but Laura managed to persuade Hsu to play for us and with Esther and Charlotte Vallis playing twice we had exactly eleven players.

We started well and we soon moved into attacking mode.  Esther ran with the ball up the pitch and with a straight strike got our first goal.  Leighton Buzzard got one back when they broke once catching Purdy on the wrong foot with a miss-hit.  However, Hsu soon got our second goal with a good shot past the keeper.  We were 2 – 1 up at half time.

In the second half, Leighton were more organised and disciplined.  However, we still spent most of the time in their half.  Bella had a great one-on-one with the keeper and got our third goal.  On a short corner Laura passed to Bella, then on to Esther who slipped it to Laura.  Laura did a beautiful reverse stick shot for our final goal.  So, we won 4 – 1.

This was an example of great teamwork and skill.  This was evidenced by the wide range of nominations for Player of the Match: Helen (who defended brilliantly), Bella (who had a great game whilst protesting that she did not know what to do as centre forward), Shan (who was a strong right inner), Purdy (who was rated far too good by the opposition), Charlotte (who had a great time as centre half in her second game of the day) and Hsu (who agreed to play for us despite a bad back and then ran like the wind with the ball).  However, the clear winner was Esther who came back when needed to defend but was noticeable for her great runs up the pitch with the ball in this, her second game of the day.