A scrappy success for the 2s

Our plan today was to solidify our place in the middle of the league table with a win. Our captain (who was still fast asleep) stepped in to fill the hole that having no goalie made. Louisa nominated Verity as our ‘On-Pitch Captain’ and we stepped out to play.

Four minutes into the game Verity scored off a strike which boosted our confidence to keep playing. When City of Bath dared to put us on the defence with a strike, Louisa (having only a short warm-up in her kit) cleared the ball with a solid kick towards Becky Blair who thwacked it up the line and into their circle. A great interception by Verity lead to a string of shorts for us. We were unlucky that City of Bath’s defence was strong despite them only having nine players.

Once again, City of Bath had made it into our D fifteen minutes into the game but Katie was not put off and she cleared it straight towards Becky Ford who passed the ball out right to Helena on the wing who passed it into Jen who passed around the defenders to Verity. Verity then crossed the ball to the back post where Jaime was waiting for a deflection. 20 minutes in goal number two was scored.

However, our structure started to merge into a pool of players, with much confusion of who should mark who and the opposition found their way to a short only two minutes after our goal was scored. The four defenders held their own though and brought about a great clearance off up the wing but this was intercepted and pushed back towards our goal. Alex stepped up though and stole the ball back and gave a hard pass to Freya who made a strike in their D but instead of a goal, she got a short - and what a lovely short that was. The left slip worked but it was unfortunate that the ball didn’t cross the line and into the back of the goal. 33 minutes - goal number three was scored by Jaime after, and I quote Caroline the umpire “a nice fiddly bit by Verity”.

One minute after this goal, Marlborough was back up and running with Freya running into space to receive the ball and taking it into the circle for a very nice strike with the ball hitting the backboard with a satisfying thud. 34 minutes - goal number four was scored.

Our team talk at half time mainly consisted of Sarah telling us that we had to keep our structure and not be drawn in and to pass around them rather than go through them. Standard procedure right? Well, we tried. The second half was better as we were mainly playing in their half. But just a few minutes in to the second half they managed to sneak a goal in and me-oh-my what a flukey goal that was - it just rolled past all of the defenders who watched in amazement as it crossed the back line. 4-1. Right.

We were not put off though and Verity soon had another strike in their circle but it was kicked away by the goalie straight to Jen who stopped it with a tackle and put it back into the circle and was very unlucky not to score. Soon enough our fifth goal came from Jaime who hit the ball into the back of the goal off a great cross from Verity. 55 minutes in - score is 5-1.

City of Bath took the ball up the side line with a lovely run but our defenders were out for the kill - hassle, hassle, hassle. No goal was scored by them as Marlborough’s defence was just too strong for them and the turnover was smooth and professional (how we managed that, we’re not quite sure) and soon Alex was dribbling into the circle and gained a short for us. 60 minutes in we were back in their circle with Freya dribbling around and through three of their defenders and finishing with a strike which made it 6-1. Bath soon gained the upper hand but Marlborough’s defence worked hard to pass it off to Verity who whacked it down the line to Freya who put it in the circle for a game of pinball with the defenders. Back and forth, back and forth it went and soon we were in the last two minutes of the game. We started to get sloppy with our passes and Sarah had to step in to stop Bath from scoring again. Whistle blows and we’re all relieved - we won!

And now for the pies and beans. :)