L2A: Maidenhead (0) 0 - 1 (0) Reading

Maidenhead (0) 0 - 1 (0) Reading

I knew this weekends fixture was always likely to be a bit down on numbers but wasnt quite expecting everyone to disapear one by one at an alarming rate on friday evening! So after quite a few long conversations and a frantic search through my emails to make sure nobody else had pulled out (they had!) i set about trying to enjoy what was left (not much) of my evening in teh knowledge i shouldnow have 11 players! …………Andddd relax! Turns out after a 8am phone call with Noman ;o) i had maybe completely miscalculated (you wont believe how hard it is to count to 11!) and we had 9 players not the 11 i dreamt up the night before! ekkkkkk! I like to think wishful thinking made me count 11 not my complete lack of mathmatical capabilities and the fact i had written someone down twice! (check me out with my long words, im hoping it makes up for the inability to count!)

Thankfully Noman was ringing to tell me she didnt trust my maths (quite rightly) either and had found us a player. brilliant :o) Though we where still only at 10! Luckily the 3’s and 3a’s where meeting @ the club at teh same tiem as us and Rosie from the 3’s very kindly ofefered her services and i also managed to drag Louisa out of bed so we where now at 12 (kinda) :o) and all this polava at 9.15am saturday morning! (big sigh) Eventually hit the road and got to Altwood School in plenty of time. After warming up on the most uneven piece of “road” going we where able toget on the pitch, which i hate to moan but was completly drowed in water with their watering system which made it like playing on a sponge, everytime you ran you ended up splashing out a mass of water and as for the ball, that was bouncing about all over the show! Well thats my excuses anyway!!!)

We lined up with a still very strong but certainly 3 new players in important
poistions, however you wouldn’t of known, we where first out the blocks by a mile! We where all over Maids like a rash for teh first 20 minutes, we had no end of chances, though struggeled to get too many on target but did spent most of it in our attacking 25 :o). Maidenhead defended very well although gave away quite a few short corners by needlessly hitting the ball behind the back line on purpose! Our short corners where ok but the Maids goalkeeper is very good so didnt manage to get any past her or her equally strong defence. The rest of the first half opened up a bit more and Maidneahd where able to get in a few attacks however none of which where really goalscoring opportunities!

We enetered half time feeling very positive about the first half however fully aware of Maids strength and that they would defently be coming out at us in the second half. With that in mind we set out again strongly, but it appeared no matter what we tried the
ball just wouldnt go in the bloody goal!!! The more sitters we missed the more the game opened up and the match went through a spell of constantly going from one goalscoring chance to one at the other end which certainly kept us defenders on our toes! In the melee of teh runaway game the umpire called Katharine over to have a word about her offer to help with her decision making! ;o) Opppsie :o) for the last 5 minutes or so it was pretty much all Reading ball we just kept working and kept working and kept working….but nope the ball wasnt going in! I have to say it was a bit like watching England play fotball when you just think nope its not guna happen we’re never gunna score!

Luckily for us we are nothing like England (we can actually score)….que yet another ‘Ding atack (not too sure what happened in it, some passing and runing im guessing….) but i do know that we scored a fecking awesome goal, as we all erupted like Izzy hooked on half tiem
Haribo and i let out what ashmedly sounded like a rediciously high pitched girly screech, i however recovered myself with a far more respectable and far deeper COME ON!!!!!!!!! I think we where all a tad overcome with the relief of finally geting a goal and the 3 points, it had been a very tense second half. As we all tried incredibly hard to get ourselves together for the rest of the match, we heard teh sweet (yes i said sweet) sound of the umpires whistle toot toot toot!!!

OMG we had scored in literally the last second of the game (effing get in!) and do you know who the scorer of this last second wonder goal was…..? our favourite right DEFENDER Katharine Evans which may i add is her first goal in a hockey match EVER!!! :o) and to think i wasjust about to give her a ear full for playing wayyy too high! ;o) bloody brilliant :o) We played sooo well at times and really worked hard as a team. Think we
certainly started to remind ourselves what lovely hockey we can play when we put our minds to it and work together :o) (awww total cheese on toast!!!)

Was a really great game and Maidenhead certainly gave us a good run for our money, im suprised they arent higher in the league than they are, they where unlucky and i felt bad (well a little) that they had to loose in such a fashion….RESPECT! :o)

Phewww i think its safe to say we are all completly buzzing still today :o) especially Miss Evans or could that just be from the Red Bull consumed with a hint of vodka the night before??? Answers on a postcard…. ;o)

Our next match (yeah i know we appear to be playing in the never ending season) brings us to our other neighbours Sonning @ Reading Uniu @ 12pm we think???

Oh yes before i forget just a pre-warning everyone keep their diaries free for Saturday 14th April, last league games of the season with the lovely ladies
2’s @ 12pm and with us (ladies 2a’s) playing @ 1.30pm both @ The Lane :o) See you all there :o) cheesy grins and thank you cuddles in advance :o)

Squad: Jen Sawyer (GK), Katharine Evans, Briony Newman, Gemma-Louise Notman, Sue Newman, Tiff Conroy, Rosie Vosser, Bev Thompson, Lucy Scott, Nadia Amin, Susan Castley, Louisa Gueritz

Goal: Katharine Evans :o) Awesome

Woman of the match: Tiff Conroy :o)

Laura Moment: Well as Laura wasnt playing (running the Reading Half Marathon the next day) i have to give it to myself as i was yet again a complete doughnut and couldnt even count to 11 to make sure we had enough players, though to be fair if so many hadnt dropped out then my maths wouldnt of been an issue!!! :o)

Umpire: Paul Westacott :o)

Crowd: Quite a crowd at Altwood in the end, including Katharine’s Dad who missed his daughters goal, he didnt even realised it was her that scored :o) bless

Thank you to the 3’s for their help :o) mush appretiated

Gem xxx ;o) xxx