Surbiton 6s 6 - 0 Epsom 4s (H)
By Kirsten Fox
Total Team Performance Powers Super 6s to Victory
The prep for this game started well, with a full squad available from Monday. Come match day, it was a bright sunny morning at Sugden Road and almost everyone turned up on time. Good omens.
From the whistle we were on the attack and it didn’t take long before Ffion opened the scoring after six minutes, then Jaime added her name to the scoresheet after eight minutes to make it 2-0. A nice position to be in so early in the game, which freed us up to play some fluid attacking hockey.
Epsom also enjoyed a spell testing our defence, which gave us some defensive short corner practice and Hutch the chance to show what she is made of, making a string of impressive saves including one full in the face, unflustered she kept calm and carried on.
Strong in defence, we played some good counter attacking hockey and were using the width well to attack from all sides, with Tarryn making some excellent runs on the right. Val scored late in the half to take us to 3 - 0 up at the half-time break.
The aim of the second half was to keep up the pace, focus on our press and build on our first half performance.
Fuelled by Candy Kittens we started as we had finished the first-half, putting together some nice one touch passes and passages of play. Again we scored early in the half, which was the first of two second half goals for Tarryn (41 and 60 minutes).
Val was a true menace in the D throughout and added a second goal to her tally, a screamer into the top of the net and an early contender for goal of the season.
The game was not as one sided as the score line may suggest, Epsom has some skilful players and continued to threaten our goal, winning a series of short corners towards the end of the match. However, we successfully managed to thwart their efforts.
It really was a great all-round team performance. The co-captains led by example, Meg’s distribution in the midfield was outstanding and Ffion was everywhere, giving 100% and managing to stay on her feet.
Jemima, Jane and Sammy kept it tight at the back. Emma had a great game with some key intercepts and supporting the attack. Becky and Issy both put in a shift with an impressive work rate, Lila made some great runs and was involved in a lot of the link play.
Three league matches in and the team is really coming together, playing enjoyable hockey and having fun. Long may it continue.
POM was a well deserved tie between Emma and Tarryn.
Having evaded the coveted DOD award last season it felt like it was meant to be for this match - getting the meet time wrong and arriving 30 minutes early went under the radar, however taking to the field for the second half without a stick did not go unnoticed…
Big thanks to Tarek for his coaching wisdom and Aldous & Aldous for umpiring.