Solid sixes strike for six

A strong squad of sixteen (-1) Ladies' 6s travelled to Bicester 2s with a spring in their step after beating Thame last Saturday. Sprinting into action, Romi scored within the first 2 minutes pouncing on a defending mistake tucking the ball into the right corner. Not to be complacent the sixes attacked from the whistle yet again and won a series of long corners, converting another goal through Milla. Play continued up the right side with Emily’s consistent running up the wing and aiming for an outcome in the D. We won a series of short corners (5, maybe 6 in a row?). Bicester defence was strong, but Romi took a hit towards the post and the ball deflected off a defender into the top left corner.

Distributing on both sides our player of the match, Yas played excellent balls to our wide players. Despite the team chat before each short corner, Karen agreed to play a short injection to Caitlin but changed her mind and much to the team’s confusion played it to Yas.

Our second half team chat led Phil to tell us all to keep our shape and composure. We knew we could improve our goal difference. Bicester came back composed after half time pressing high, and only by resorting to using both sides of their stick got one goal passed Billers, who until that point had little to do in the game.

We didn’t let the set back of a goal get us down. Karen drove the ball strong towards the goal, keeping to the right side, and crossed into Caitlin on the left side to score a clear goal to be 4-1 up. Hawks kept the play strong, using all our players with excellent passing. Jill and Milla connected through a series of 1-2s up the pitch. Milla ignored the side line calls to make a square pass to Jess and decided to go it alone to get her 2nd and Hawks 5th goal.

Ella, playing HB and out of her preferred forward position, took this opportunity to drive hard on the left side and injected pace into the game. We had some well worked attacks into the D, but we kept it strong. Then Ella with a clean strike towards the goal was deflected by Caitlin, who found herself in be right place at the right time for a reverse deflection for her 2nd and Hawks’ goal 6.

A solid team performance, with our defence staying strong and fully supporting our attack towards goal. After match hospitality was nicely rounded off with chip butties followed by Chocolate Brownies from Ella. Player of the match nominations included most of the forward half, but the clear winner was Yas with her consistency in centre mid. Let’s aim for a front foot performance next week at home against Abingdon 1s