Ladies 6s Fight Back to Draw in OCs Derby

Ladies 6s 2 - 2 Old Cranleighans L2

Goals: Maisie 2

POM: Maisie

DOD: Tiff

Several epic derbies have taken place this week. First we had the Liverpool vs Everton derby, which forevermore will be known as 'The Pickford Tackle' game. That was quickly followed by the equally exciting derby of Surbiton Men’s 5s v Old Kingstonians – a game that saw our excellent coach Rory get tackled in the D and knocked out – luckily some smelling salts and beer assisted his recovery and they went on to win the game. The last (and possibly most important) derby, was the Ladies 6s vs OCs. A clash of titans not seen since the days of David and Goliath, as the top of the table (OCs) were brought to heel by the brave and passionate 6s seeking their first win of the season. 

Not content with 2020 being a pretty challenging year already, Storm Barbara felt the need to get in on the act, with monsoon weather lashing down on us for much of the pre-match tactical discussion (what had everyone had for breakfast that day?) and into the warm up that certainly missed my favourite element of 'Giselle Cooper Says'.

As anticipated, OCs were hard and they were fast, scoring in the opening minutes and setting the 6s hearts racing. But with some solid calming down and some brilliant movement around the back, we took control of the game and had some good possession and runs into their D. Giselle Cooper scored an excellent goal that saw her dribble the ball out from the back all the way into D. Sadly, her glory was short lived due to an unfortunate kicking of the ball incident, however all the hallmarks were there for a 6s comeback. Deep into the first half we suffered a second setback with a goal taken well by OCs. With our backs against the wall at 2-0 we dug deep and Maisie scored a great goal to bring us to 2-1 down as we went into half time. 

A half time talk by the now revived although slightly disappointed-to-have-had-his-pint-knocked-over Rory, saw some pretty heavy sweet-loading by all 6s and a first cardinal error by Tiff: never mix the jelly babies with Haribo. We knew what we had to do, we just needed to execute.

The second half saw OCs back out hard and fast – and again it put us on the backfoot until we remembered that we know how to play together well with simple passing. The game became pretty end to end with both sides enjoying possession and short corners, but neither could find a way through. An equaliser felt tantalisingly close when tragedy struck and cardinal sin #2 was committed. Without the benefit of VAR or action replays we'll never know how the tackle compared to Pickford's or Rory's knock out, but suffice to say it shocked the umpire sufficiently to wave a yellow card and take us down to 10 women for 10 minutes.

Facing into the abyss is apparently exactly what we need to raise our game, with Maisie again driving into the D and scoring a splendid second goal. We controlled the game well and a third seemed all too possible... alas it was not to be. However, despite the setbacks and ignominious yellow card, the Super 6s pulled a point back and although a win still eludes us, each game feels like it's coming closer and closer.