Women's 6s 2 - 3 Wimbledon 5s (A)

The Women’s 6s kicked off their 23/24 league campaign with a trip to the beach, AKA Wimbledon High School’s sandy number, with pitch lines designed by Jackson Pollock on acid.

Sporting a number of fresh new faces it was good to see a degree of familiarity about the squad too. Ffion got lost. Fee was injured. Val provided unsolicited feedback to the umpire.

Our spectator quotient has also increased massively from one mangled pigeon last season to an enthusiastic and optimistic group of juniors’ parents, looking slightly shell-shocked at the prices Merton charge for on-street Saturday parking.

The match was fairly even with plenty of chances on both sides. Wimbledon took the lead mid way through the first half only for us to quickly equalise with a converted PC. Great smack at goal from Jen and an ugly (but they all count!!) jab across the line from the rebound by Val.

This clearly riled Wimbledon who quickly scored again before adding another early into the second half.

Our defence soaked up their attacks beautifully with Sinead, Sammy, Aoife and Amber communicating well and following Eve’s guidance from goal. Our speedy young halfbacks drove out of trouble when needed, making Usain Bolt mileage up the wings. Even Sammy was inspired and chased their forwards relentlessly.

Special shoutout to Amelie who parachuted into the match with an hour’s notice and brought confidence and maturity to the wide variety of positions Coach Fee asked her to cover.

Our midfield also had a very solid game. Thea owning the centre, ably supported by Lauren (spot on tackling), Ffion (great drives through to the D) and Jen in her new, top of the diamond role creating great post-up options.

Our forwards (Val, Issy, Sophie & Neve) certainly put their Fitbits through their paces with plenty of drives into then D, then back out to chase defenders. We won plenty of short corners but maybe need more than one training session to up our conversion rate.

Our second goal was another cracking strike at goal by Captain Jen, this time with Spidey-senses Ffion ready to slot home the rebound.

Wimbledon’s experience showed but it was very far from a David and Goliath match. Their sweeper may be the one exception to Tarek’s “eyes don’t lie” golden rule but with a tighter press and actually knowing each others names next time this fixture is ripe for the win.

POM: Sammy but ably supported by lots of stellar performances from Tangfastic-fuelled Aiofe & Neve, Amelie, Thea and Val.

DOD: Val, for somehow avoiding multiple green cards with her “helpful” umpire chat.

Scorers: Val & Jen