Ladies celebrate finally playing at home with a good resounding win

We knew we would have to dig deep for this game - we’d had 2 weeks off, due to the Beast from the East - training sessions had been missed and we didn’t have 2 members of the team we rely heavily on…we were nervous, excited, ready and FINALLY at home!! And I have to say, none of this bothered us...Marlborough, certainly showed up and put in an amazing team effort.

The last time we had played City of Bath, it was very wet, we won 4-0 and whilst we didn’t think this would be an easy game, we planned to beat that score and keep a clean sheet. That was our target for this week. The team started with a brilliant and intense team warm up. Every team member was switched on and ready to play - the communication was clear, the passes on point. Marlborough were ready to go.

With the welcomed return of Rachel Cox following her ankle injury, she slotted straight back in, keeping the structure & distributing the ball beautifully from the back line. Playing a strong game of possession hockey, Marlborough certainly proved they were the stronger team. After working the ball up the pitch, Tess Christmas received the ball in the D and demonstrated perfectly how to keep composed and twisting round to nutmeg the goalie with the 1st goal of the match!

The team kept up the possession hockey, working it in our favour and tiring out the opposition. Beth Palfrey’s fancy footwork ensured the defence didn’t give balls away and Vicky Moxham has got the intimidating goalie down to a fine art - at one point, running out to the edge of the D to make sure their attack didn’t come too close. Marlborough kept the strong defence and the control of the game for the rest of the first half.

After a good half time chat, we placed our focused back onto the target - beating 4-0 and keeping a clean sheet.
Minutes into the second half, Catherine Manley hit a beautiful, strong and direct ball into the D, for Bella Busby to deflect into the goal - securing our 2nd goal of the game!

The second half was really about Marlborough playing wonderful hockey and demonstrating brilliant team work. Amy Davidson, who has an ongoing knee injury, played so well and did not let the injury get in the way. Tess Christmas tried tirelessly to score off her reverse stick, but sadly was unlucky, Anna Strover made some strong runs and was unlucky not to score and Annabel Ashley made some amazing runs down the wing and cutting in to pass some great balls into the D. Off one of these balls came a short corner. Short ball was passed to Beth Palfrey who smacked it towards the goal, for Sophie Fynn to deflect it into the goal - text book!! Getting closer to our target now..3-0.

From then on it felt like we were just running into the D and then out to setting up the press for 16s - we had many chances, but weren’t converting, which became frustrating. Even Bella Busby launching herself all over the place didn’t help, other than worsening the ‘hockey knees’...Finally, from the frustration came Neve Beer with a classic strong hit from the top of the D and the beautiful sound of the ball hitting the back board. 4-0…on par with the last game.

With Moxy kicking the ball out of the D, the ball worked its way up from the defence, to the halves, up to the forwards with Milly Dawson fighting and getting a short corner! The ball was out to the top of the D, Sophie Fynn hit a straight strike, picked up the rebound, twisted and scored the final goal of the match! Meeting our target of 5-0 - thanks Moxy for the ‘assist’!!

We all agreed that this was one of Marlborough’s best performances of the year - the team work was amazing. Special mention and thanks go to Catherine Manley who moved back into midfield for the game and then had to move further back to cover defence. 7 people were nominated for Man Of The Match. It was so hard to choose, however Jess Davis won Marlborough News
Online Man of the Match for her strong runs and fantastic distribution in midfield.
The team are excited for next week as once again it’s at home so home teas!! Next week the game is against close league rivals Gillingham.