Ladies 5s Hit London Eds for Three
By Ciara Aldous
Ladies 5s 3 - 0 London Edwardians L2
DOD this week falls to me. Having been asked to umpire before the afternoon had been pretty manic. Already running 15 minutes behind schedule and absolutely soaked, once the Ladies 9s had finished it was from one game to the next! The Ladies 5s were all ready and fighting to go... without their captain who was too busy changing behind the car and forgetting they actually needed a hockey stick to play. Thank god for Tarek who saved the team talk and warm up, giving us some sort of indication of what we were supposed to do with the ball.
After a rushed start and terrible weather, the whistle blew and we were off. With quite a mismatched team we performed well, strong linking passages from the mid line into our forwards. Ruby fell short with a few strikes at goal early on. Naomi also gave herself a few chances, although it appeared she was more desperate to take out our own umpire too instead of going for goal – nice one! London Eds were keen and managed to counter giving them some early chances too. Out from a 16, Talia who had an outstanding performance all game, played the line ball and we were up putting pressure on their defence once again. Gaby pushed the ball wide, Ruby driving the baseline perfectly once again (well done, learnt a lot from training – Tarek will be proud!) with a quick cross into Pia and a goal! 1-0 but it was all still to play for!
Moving forward, Eds were desperate for one of their own back. They made several deadly attacks back down into our D, Molly and Kara’s defending was superb but we still managed to concede a short corner. Marlijn saved us, going to ground and then a quick rebound save off her hand! Quick reset and the ball went up to Zoe who ran through most of their team to earn up our second goal. Half time whistle blew and we were 2-0 up. Promising performance so far.
Again the lack of half time snacks seemed to fall down to me, even though Tarek continually tries to use a whiteboard pen that doesn’t work, that’s another DOD nomination for me!
Into the second half, Eds were fighting back, threatening our defensive line with even their centre back pushing up. We didn’t give in though, Amelia and Tabby proving that they really are Will’s “super colts”! Midfielders battled hard, winning the 50/50 balls and some awesome tackles from Holly. Another opportunity came, Pia one on one with the keeper... and another opportunity went... why that did not get DOD I will never know?! However, it wasn’t over yet. Lucy ran her legs off, making leads all over the place. Gaby continued to run riot through the midfield. Molly and Amelia stepped up once again to put pressure on their defence. Ball in, back post and GOALLLLLL thanks to Jess. 3-0!
A few more close run ins, followed by two more passes off the pitch by Ciara (another DOD nomination by Simone) saw the final result at 3-0. A great game and a well deserved three points. Onto the next game, the local derby against OCs, what will that have in store for us?!