Women’s 4s 0 - 1 Hampstead & Westminster 4s (A)
By Emily Hughes
On what was another gloriously sunny spring day, the 4s headed to Paddington Rec to take on Hampstead and Westminster, keen to bag some points in our campaign to stay in London Div 1.
With 10 pairs of youthful legs, and two pairs of rather more ‘mature’ legs, we started out really strong. Amber and Parmie were controlling the back, with Aoife and Bessie distributing balls up the left and right sides of the pitch. Charlotte Gallagher took on her namesake’s role in the middle, preventing any H&W attacks and keeping our team well organised. We got a number of breaks, with Chloe running circles around the H&W midfield, Emily driving up the left and Thea up the right. Lizzie showed us skills that belied her years, and Swindell (despite an injured little finger nail) and Neve were making lead after lead up front.
We were piling the pressure on, with Chloe weaving her way round player after player. Numerous counter attacks for us with fast balls thrown down to Neve who out sprinted every H&W defender with ease, meant the only way for them to stop her was to concede a short corner. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to convert any of these and went into half time 0-0.
An uplifting half time talk from Swindell meant confidence and spirits were high as we went into the second half. However H&W used the benefit of all the subs to keep the energy up, and we let them have three periods where we went a player down due to unfortunate green cards. Despite numerous ninja like saves from Lexi, they finally managed to slot a goal in and take the lead.
We did all we could to come back and grab at least a point, but the final whistle went and we fell short.
All is still to play for in the last game of the season…
POM Bessie, Lexi and Chloe
DOD Emily for her green card