Ospreys Battle Hard for Marlow Win

GU14 Ospreys 4 - 1 Marlow GU14 (A)

Ospreys kicked off the new league apprehensively with a depleted squad through injuries. We even had Amin sisters in the team with Lara as a welcoming volunteer. This meant positional changes to a number of players, and team formation adjustments to play under wet and wintry conditions by the River Amber.

The game started with a bang as Henkes scored on a counter played in by Nendick as early as the third minute. Ospreys’ early momentum dissipated soon with Marlow operating a pretty tight man-to-man marking system. A lack of fluidity was evident from both sides. Physicality took hold with the home side grinding out more chances, to be fair.  On the twentieth minute mark, Marlow reaped their reward as the ball pinpointed its way to goal.  This was followed by a spell of ten minutes where Ribet made her presence felt with a full display of agility, awareness and courage to keep the score level. Ospreys took aspiration from this with some slick but direct passes from Lam Fuentes (back) to Nendick (midfield) who raced on with another counter and hit with precision beyond the onlooking Marlow goalie.

With their noses in front, Ospreys played with more confidence and generally played a better half in terms of support and positioning, with some encouraging darting runs from Dunsire Moore, Waller & Walker. Henkes picked up her second of the match, capitalising on her run as the ball was put in play by Dunisire Moore. It was refreshing to see Amin bring training into practice by playing an innovative ‘high risk/high return’ short corner to all bar one Osprey, who in turn were waiting to strike on the D whilst leaving half of opposition in our half on a counter. In the end, our strike was clean but did not trouble the keeper. The fourth goal served up a replay of Henkes’ first goal counter – assisted by Nendick and scored by the hat-tricker.

Job done (three points in the bag) despite the circumstances. Next week, Ospreys will be on the road (M4) again at Reading. Fingers crossed for a full squad for selection, hopefully, with the injured and absentees returning.

Result: 4-1 win (2-1 at half time)

Scorers: Henkes (3), Nendick