Will the rain ever stop?

Our game at Caversham thankfully went ahead, but with us fielding a somewhat depleted squad on and off the pitch - the “bomb squad” coaching team were deployed for this game with Andrew and Sean taking the strain….erm, I mean taking the honours ;-)

The Panthers enthusiastically welcomed Teagan back in her regular GK position, although making her return from injury in a week where we were missing 4 of our regular defenders probably wasn’t what she was expecting or hoping for!

We had to improvise and we fielded several players out of position in a back 4 that actually played extremely well. For the first 25mins, the girls kept Caversham pinned back in their own half and it was only the small dimensions of the pitch that restricted the girl's ambitions to use their pace and passing skills. During this period of the match, we had a handful of chances to take the lead, Brooke with a lovely pivot and shot on the turn that deserved a goal and powerful shots from both Alexia and Jueun.

Caversham were defending very well too, crowding the penalty area with players and closing down our players quickly, but the balance of play was with Wargrave for almost the whole of the first half. So, when the half time whistle blew, there was optimism that the game might open up in the second half.

This turned out to be true, but not in the way we had hoped! A Caversham corner kick squeezed between two players at the near post and a whisker "snicko" touch deflected the ball into our net, a cruel way to go behind when our girls had pushed so hard for goals in the first half. 0-1

Both teams seemed energised by the score, Aster repeatedly tore down the right wing and got behind the home defence, Elspeth was racing past her markers on the other wing, Florence battled her way through the middle and Evelyn and Elise swept up the ball in the centre of the field. With no clear cut chances to score, we decided to gamble for the final 20mins and take a player out of defence to provide more attacking options. This produced results when Jueun levelled the game up with a characteristically strong shot from range. 1-1

The last 10 minutes was more frenetic, either team could have stolen the win at the end, but it finished 1-1, a result that both sides were happy with. Although a highly competitive game, it was played with a smile and a laugh today, a slippy pitch bringing some comedy moments, the girls of both teams were enjoying themselves and it was great to see.

All of the girls worked super-hard today, especially Florence, but it was the defenders who clearly put their hands up for player of the match this week. Emma and Phoebe were excellent, but we were especially impressed with Lois who was filling in the critical “last line of defence” position, cancelling out Caversham’s attacks, sweeping up the through balls and knowing exactly when to play for safety first and put the ball off the field, she was calm and confident and our star player of the match today!

Thanks to Andrew and Sean for stepping in to manage the team.