Sloths 3 - 3 Wallingford O35sSloths win on shoot out
By Helen Waugh
Following a Thursday night (second half) demolition of Guildford a few weeks ago, the Sloths were awarded a O35 Tier 2 Quarter Final place against Wallingford (wherever that is). Preparations for the game began early (approx. 4pm on Saturday) with pints of Prosecco, Ruth’s big 50th birthday bash, plenty of dancing and post party pizza.Captain Charlotte had the forethought to organise a team bus and drove us plus Wendy and her hooter 90 minutes north west to our destination, thankfully none of the sick bucket hats were required. We had a solid 25 minute warm up, which is about 24 minutes longer than usual, thankfully we hadn’t used up too much energy as four minutes in and our first circle entry Sian smashes the ball through their defence and into the goal. After all the excitement we fell asleep a little, which allowed their Speedy Gonzales to pick up the ball on the halfway line tear up the pitch and slot in an equaliser.Wallingford grew in confidence showcasing some of their beautiful grass hockey skills often seen in Vets matches, crash balls through the middle, lumberjack tackling, bottom barges. Despite the Sloths having most of the possession a counterattack led to a fumble of sticks, a deflection and another goal for Wallingford.At half time the Sloths had to settle for Percy Pigs which seemed to have a better outcome than the Candy Kittens as we equalised almost immediately through a beautiful deflection into the roof of the net from Jen. However another momentary lapse of concentration (could it have been the prosecco?) led to Wallingford winning a PC and again taking the lead. The Sloths changed up the formation, Courtney (who had been quarantined with illness for two days beforehand) came on up front, won a PC and duly launched it past their keeper.As we entered the final ten minutes of the game the prospect of an away fixture in Plymouth clouded some players’ minds, Sian sent a penalty flick wide, Courtney spun around the keeper and missed an open goal, and Charlotte thought we were 4-3 down. As the umpire repeatedly checked his watch the realisation for most of the team that we were heading for a shootout, except Charlotte who proudly began the three cheers upon the final whistle.Up stepped the five Sloth flickers and Marlijn ready for the shootout, looking like we’d practiced these a million times we went ahead, Marlijn making an awesome save, unfortunately the Wallingford keeper making a save of her own… as we approached sudden death Wallingford changed their order, but Marlijn stayed cool making a save and all the pressure on Sunny who then buried her flick into the far corner of the netting to secure the win for the Sloths.Our Semi Final opposition is TBC on the 14th April - no other big club event going on that day is there?DOD Nominations1. Jen asking Wendy ‘so have you played hockey before?’2. Courtney magically spinning around the GK only to then miss an open goal…3. Charlotte doing an early three cheers before the penalty shootoutThe unchallenged winner of DOD is CharlottePOM – Jen for the net breaking deflection of a goal Shout out to Laura who turned from ultimate Team Manager to ultimate Sub on Sunday!