Women’s Pennant B vs Doncaster
Result SUHC 1 – Doncaster 0
We had a big team of 14 players for this game, giving me a few headaches about who to play where and trying to find a happy medium for all.
We were under the pump for the first ten minutes with defensive positioning and poor tackling showing up some weaknesses. After about 15 minutes the team started to settle down, they shortened the game up and we started to move the ball around the field alot better.
Alison made some great saves throughout the game particularly in the first half having to even make a great sliding save. There were some close calls with Lee making a great save on the line and Sue blocking every ball that came near her.
We started to work our way into attack but we didn’t get consistency in the circle and all in all I was thinking, “not another draw please”.
After a bit of a rev up at half time our forwards came out with a much more aggressive approach in attack. There were some great opportunities which we were able to convert into penalty corners. One corner resulted in the opposition saving a shot on goal on the line with her foot earning us a penalty stroke. Lee slotted into the back of the net. (Just like she had been practising, NOT!)
My heart rate was steadily going up with 19 minutes still to go in the game and for the first few minutes after the goal Doncaster attacked really hard but we were able to hold them off until we settled again and things started to swing our way.
For the rest of the game we kept peppering the goals without reward, Vanessa even sacrificed a few ribs trying to charge the ball over the line. Pleasingly we had the majority of the ball and kept the ball in our attacking half for longer.
The end result was a great win in a very tight competition. This win propelled us from 9th to 5th on the ladder but it means that we can’t drop the ball now and we need to keep improving to hold our place as the season progresses.
– Jacky
