This was our final friendly before the league begins next week, and after last weeks win we were definitely hoping for another repeat of this, but if we are totally honest, we weren’t really feeling very optimistic of this! Peterborough 2s play in a higher league than us, and according to inside sources (AKA Cavey) they were going to be really strong and skilful.
Now if we are completely honest with ourselves Cavey wasn’t wrong, they were. However, we pulled together again as a team unit and took the game to them. Our youngest ever 1st team back 4 stood strong, with player of match Imogen Smith marshalling the defence and thoroughly deserving the POM award at the end, and with Gracie Gault and Sophie Richardson cutting down the attacks down the sides. They did break through though a number of times and earned a few penalty corners, all of which the defensive corner team, which was the 3 girls plus Evie Wharf and Amy March, closed down and nullified any further attack or goal.
Just before half time we earned our one and only penalty corner of the game which didn’t quite go to plan as the pass from Emma to Toni didn’t quite have the pace needed and the defender managed to intercept. Fortunately she then ran the ball straight into Toni’s (my) reverse stick so I won the ball back and laid it off to Emma who was now free at the top of the circle. Her shot was deflected to the left where Imogen who had moved in after injecting was waiting, and showing great composure under pressure slotted the ball away. This therefore means we had a 100% record from scoring from our penalty corners today albeit not quite the routine we were meant to do!
The extra legs on the sideline today were much needed as it seemed to get hotter and hotter, but this didn’t impact the tempo of the game; we kept the pressure up even as Peterborough tried to string some quick lifted balls together to catch us off guard. In the second part of the second half we seemed to be able to get the ball through the midfield and up to our unmarked forwards a lot quicker, although in most cases out first touch let us down which I blame on the heat and fatigue. If this had happened earlier in the game I think we would have made these opportunities count.
All in all a positive game where we fought hard and felt like we had once again pulled together as a team, and we would definitely take a 1-0 win in the league although a 5-3 would be better!
We take on Spalding in our first league game next Saturday and with 2 good wins under our belt I think we should be going into these games feeling very confident.