Snails WO45s 0 - 2 Ashford WO45s (A)
By Jane Willis
Sunday marked the first run out for the defending champions in the London O45s league, playing against the opposition who were our closest rivals last season.
Our trusted captain Sinead was hoping that the rebranding wasn’t going to negatively impact our performance. We tested her from the beginning, with her heading out into the (un forecast) rain only to look around to see that the rest of us were, taking the team name to heart, and moving at the pace of a snail whilst we caught up on the events of the previous few days.
Once she managed to rally us together we warmed up well and were ready to defend our title. We started strong with the team playing as a unit and creating some good chances. Ruth had a well worked one on one with the goalie that was just inched wide and Ellie was making some characteristic interceptions at the back. One of Ashford’s players was overheard saying that she put them off with her shimmying movement (which she might just have picked up from the Fan Zone at Twickenham stadium the previous night!).
As a team we worked best when we used the space, passed to a fellow Snail and general worked together. On the forward line Jenny made some brilliant leads on the left, Anna linked up well with Anne driving down the right and together with Ruth and Val’s energy they all gave the Ashford defence a headache as they tried to find that elusive goal. We are lucky to have players that can play in more than one position (I think that’s what Sinead said) and this we put to good use when Ruth and Val’s skills and flexibility were employed to bolster the mid line. Together with Captain Sinead, Philippa and Fee they all worked tirelessly to try to slow down and disrupt Ashford’s midfield.
The defence saw a familiar line up, with Ellie playing out of her usual Saturday position on the right, Debs in the middle valiantly mopping up behind me and Ruth B cracking some beautiful balls down the left to the forwards, and even running up to support in the attacking D. Emma Dempsey (full names only) joins the back line, arriving on Emma Dempsey time, as always with a good excuse, and to be honest it would disrupt the whole balance of the Snails if she actually arrived for the warm up. Last and by no means least we had Annie in goal, working hard as always, she made some important saves and clearances that saw us go into half time at 0-0.
I feel like that would be a good place to stop, but there was actually a second half… the rain had eased off and Ashford came out with a bit more of a game plan. One of these was to shout for Lisa - none of us were too sure who Lisa was, but the tactic worked and they won the game 2-0.
On Sunday we produced some beautiful passages of play, with everyone working hard for each other and communicating well. Lots of positives to build on for opening cup game against Guildford on the 12th.
Player of the Match: Ellie