With this being the furthest we have had to travel so far this season we all set off in good time, only to find we had time for a costa and a play in the park! But having come such a long way with a number of players missing, we didn’t want to come away from this game without some points.
The pelicans ladies put up a decent fight in the first half, with a strange compact style of game that was difficult to break through, and even more difficult to create any fluency in the passing. Kettering did have a number of missed opportunities to take the lead as balls travelled into and then back out of the semi circle, and certainly had the better of the chances in the first half, but pelicans kept us at bay. Player of the match Georgie worked tirelessly down the right to win the ball and drive forward, and Amy earnt the ‘champagne moment’ of the game by making not one, but two spectacular saves to keep Kettering in the game (as it turned out these were her only 2 touches of the game!)
As the first half progressed it was clear that Kettering were becoming frustrated with the style of play Pelicans adopted, using their experience to use their bodies to keep us from making a tackle, so half time couldn’t come soon enough.
After a bit of a blunt half time talk that in a nutshell was “stop being so polite” we started the second half, getting the ball into their defending end immediately. As we piled the pressure forwards Pelicans were then starting to get a taste of their own medicine as we played more compact and became a lot more stronger in winning the ball. It then wasn’t long before the umpire had no choice but to award a penalty corner for a rather cynical tackle on Georgie as she drove down the right again.
The speed of the player out from the defensive line up proved a bit too fast for Toni to get a clean shot away, but fortunately Beth had moved ahead and was there ready and waiting. A neat reverse pass found it’s way through the goal keeps legs and the celebration of this goal lifted Kettering immensely. From this point forward Kettering were the better team and started to play the hockey we are becoming more familiar with playing. Another penalty corner led to a second goal as Cath’s initial strike was saved but played straight back to her, but with the line now blocked a call from Toni at the top was heard, the pass was made and after taking the ball over to the right, smashed the ball past the keeper into the left corner.
As the time ticked away it seemed that Pelicans heads had dropped and Kettering’s tails were up. Steph came painfully close a few times to adding to the goal tally, as did newcomer Meghan, but no further goals came.
This result was most definitely one of the more sweeter victories of the season so far, with a number of factors being stacked against Kettering, and yet we still pulled through and ended up having a lovely day out!