Women’s 6s 3 – 2 Spencer 6s (A)
By Sophie Rodger
This Saturday the Women’s 6s and our fabulous entourage – parents, spaniels and injured comrades – visited top-of-the-table Spencer with the aim of avenging our narrow 2-1 defeat from earlier in the season. Val once again stepped into Jen’s shoes to captain and deliver the key messages: slick passing, confidence, and – for the benefit of our new recruits – listen to Sinead!
Being the underdogs apparently suits us as we dominated play from the get-go. Thea held the middle superbly in an assured display of centre mid-ing while Flo, Ffion and Rosie provided strength and pace up the sidelines, feeding the ball to the forwards for circle entry after circle entry.
Spencer were scrambling and opted to get as many bodies behind the ball as possible, crowding their defensive 25 which made finding a breakthrough challenging. In our attempts to pile the pressure on, though, we got caught a little too high, leaving ourselves exposed on the counter, with the oppo delighted to grab a jammy goal against the run of play.
Undeterred, we brushed it off, reset and stuck to our game plan, allowing Spencer no breathing room. An equaliser quickly followed through a Rosie thump from top D which ricocheted its way in, and then a second from Neve as a just reward for running rings around anyone who came near her.
Our blistering pace and slick tiki-taka passing had Spencer spinning and frustrated: the more their coach yelled at them to mark, the more we seemed to evade them with great movement up front from Val, Gracie, Neve and Meg, and audacious forging runs from our rapid half backs, Aoife, Bessie and Ella, magnificently supported by our tireless mids.
The second half saw Spencer up their game, with our defence now made to work a lot harder. Ever-dependable Eve made a number of confident saves with her lightning-quick reactions and I lost count of the number of times Sammy deftly picked the ball off the oppo and marshalled it safely out of the D – but eventually an equaliser came.
Fuelled by a fluffy, fizzy, gooey concoction of jelly babies, flumps, and tangfastics, though, we weren’t about to take our foot off the gas. We regrouped, heaped more pressure on and stuck to our patient possession game even as time ticked down.
In a dramatic finale, we grabbed our deserved winner with only two minutes to go: Flo – the architect of so much during the game – went for one last stunning baseline drive and placed it perfectly on the p-sport for Ffion to coolly convert. Cue: total eruption!
An outstanding team performance that sees us jostle our way up the table with Ashford and Wimbledon hot on our heels, but Wayfarers, OCs and Sunbury all in close reach.
POM was closely contested given such strong performances across the board but this week goes to Mission Control Sinead Goodden. So often our DOD for her amusing chunterings and idiosyncrasies, Sinead – alongside her trusty deputy-in-command, Sammy – is also a total rock at the back, week in week out. She pulls one half-back low while sending another high, orchestrates all the marking, is a constant stream of positivity and helpful communication, and keeps us collected and focussed on the basics when the pressure is on. And of course, provides unintentional sprinklings of comedy gold throughout the game!
Special mention must also go to Flo for a sublime game – regularly carrying the ball half the pitch, giving us all a masterclass in the baseline drive and assisting two of the goals. Please come back any time!
DOD this week was also a tight call between Gracie wildly celebrating the ball hitting the side netting and Neve for a whole lotta sass - but deservedly goes to the latter!
HUGE thanks to the fantastic support, as well as to Meg, Ella and Flo for helping us out so brilliantly.