Another long trip this weekend through some very rural villages and bumpy old roads, but well worth it to get another 3 points on the board. It was in fact a bit of a strange game today, things seemed to move in slow motion and the amount of space Kettering seemed to have was actually quite disconcerting. At one point I had to actually count their players as wasn’t sure they had a full team out!

A few positional changes were tried today with Gracie taking on the centre back role, Evie moving back to right back, Isla going back to left back and Ilana giving right midfield/wing a go. Based on the voting for player of the match it was evident that the young girls of the team had a great game today showing lots of confidence and determination.

Kettering had the lions share of possession throughout the game and only dipped near the start of the game where people were getting used to their position in the press, and with Georgie taking a ball to the face meaning an early sub needed to be made, but once settled (or as settled as we could be), the ball barely left our attacking half. The pitch was deceptively bouncy and quick with both teams struggling to control the ball on the first touch and lots of missed passes which then became good passes as the ball would somehow find its way through. Kettering had a number of penalty corners in the first half and finally converted one as Steph managed to collect a rebound and lift it over the keeper. It probably should have been more than 1-0 at half time but we weren’t overly worried as Amy had only touched the ball once so far, and even then she didn’t even need to but obviously wanted to be somewhat involved in the game (this was the only touch of the game though).

A bit of talk about the press again at half time and we started the second half much better, with the press actually working very well. Ilana and Cath were both great in their positioning which meant they picked off nearly every ball that was attempted to be hit through. Long Sutton only got into our half of the pitch maybe twice and even then it was mopped up well by Emma R in the sweeper position. Steph added another goal to the tally as she calmly gathered the ball to slot it between the goalkeepers legs, and then not to be out done by her younger sibling, Harri soon followed suit with a tenacious goal of her own followed by her trademark arm in the air celebration. She probably would have had a second if Steph hadn’t “accidentally” got in the way of a short corner strike; good defending though!!

The goal of the game though came from Georgie. Once again another scramble around the goal with lots of bodies and sticks flying about, Emma F received the ball from Cath initially and couldn’t quite convert but got the rebound to lay it off to Georgie who somehow seemed to float through the players and sticks to then reverse flick the ball over the keeper - absolute class!

A well-deserved win again for Kettering and some might say we should have scored more, but as ever, a win is a win!