Blown away

Another Sunday afternoon in Cheltenham, another solid performance from every one of the 8 Marlborough girls.

We started up on the blue pitches in great style, with Molly opening the scoring fairly early in the game. Hetty then came through with two fine goals. The girls were confident and assured, with the defence and midfield working together nicely to feed the ball forward. It was clear to all of us watching that the team are passing well. And when the counter-attack came, the team was solid at the back so Georgie was not troubled in goal. 3-0 win to Marlborough

Having moved down to the green pitches, we swapped Ava into the goal keeping kit. I really appreciated the way that the girls stepped up to have a go in goal, and Ava acquitted herself well. Molly showed her customary desire to score, running the ball all the way from the midfield to the goal. 1-0 win to Marlborough

Izzy's turn to step up in goal followed, and another clean sheet for Marlborough. With Blythe and Georgie working steadily in defence, Hetty in midfield and Kitty, Florence and Molly up front, Marlborough again looked confident. Hetty eventually netted a goal. 1-0 win to Marlborough.

Our next match came straight after, so with no time to swap over kit Izzy remained in goal. Having conceded an early goal to a very sharp striker, Izzy got stuck in and pulled off a series of great saves. 0-1 loss.

Waiting for our last match, against Lansdowne, we could see that we were up against a team to be reckoned with and so it proved. Lansdowne opened the scoring relatively early in the game, and slotted in a couple of goals. Hetty pulled one back with a cracking shot, Lansdowne were clearly on good form and didn't give the ball away easily. The match turned out a 1-5 loss.

As ever, what really struck me was the spirit and character shown by all players on a cold afternoon. It is sometimes easy to forget that some of the team have not been playing hockey for very long, and yet they passed the ball with confidence and continued to move into positions of space. Three wins is a great result to have from any afternoon, and the Marlborough u10 girls should feel proud.