Sloths 4 - 1 Folkestone Optimist WO35s (H)
By Emily Hughes
On a gloriously sunny weekend, a snuggle of 15 sloths turned up ready to take on Folkestone in the quarter finals of the O35 Tier 2 plate. Well, maybe not quite so ready…
In the first half it looked like most of the team had never held a hockey stick before, nor met any other member of the team. Unforced error after unforced error belied our literally centuries of experience on the pitch. With Herbie playing with only one functioning leg, me and my stick with an apparent hole through the middle were left to ‘control’ the middle of the pitch. Folkestone took advantage of our mistakes and a barrage of attacks and short corners ensued. Thankfully, Marlijn and her cat like reactions saved us time and time again. Laura was doing her best to manage our subs, which was challenging when Charlotte started disagreeing with the rotations that she herself had written.
Just before half time we finally managed to string a few passes together, which meant we came off with a glimmer of hope that we could turn things round. Some clear and calm words of advice from Spuggie, and we went back out for the second half glad that we were at least still starting a 0-0.
Thankfully we were like a different team. Passes were linking, players were leading where we were expecting them to, and confidence began to pick up. We’ll gloss over the part where Lisa got tangled up in Sunny’s stick and was flat out on the floor, when the game wasn’t even in play! We soon won our first short corner, which was injected to Herbie who blasted it straight past the keeper to split the backboard. Finally we had given Wendy and our faithful supporters reason to make some noise.
We continued to apply pressure, with loads more attacking play putting Folkestone under more pressure. Two more short corners won, and we put Sian and her rocket strike up for the job. She duly delivered, with Jen deflecting the second in beautifully.
Folkestone were not giving up, and got a few breaks that put us under pressure, saved again by Marlijn. Another break on, and I came in a little recklessly from behind, to be sent to the bench for a breather. Folkestone took advantage of being a player up and pulled a goal back, bringing the score to 3-1.
Back up to a full team, we were keen to put a nail in the coffin. A break down the middle, ball passed to Sian in the D who slipped it across to Ruth who confidently put it past the keeper.
It was certainly a game of two halves, but thankfully we’d kept a clean sheet in the first half which meant we finished with a confident win.
On to the semi finals…
POM Marlijn for save after save
DOD Emily for replacing the hole in her stick with a green card
Big thanks to the umpires and all our supporters.