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Sat 25 Feb 2017 · Division 4
Women 7Banbury Ladies 4s
O Lamb (20'), S Boyle (30')
2
1
Man of the match , Sandy, makes up for lost time
Karen Atkinson27 Feb 2017 - 20:43
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She scores again!
Having missed a large number of games through injury Sandy was in no mood to take it easy. There was no way the rather more youthful Banbury team were going to beat us. With nearly 100 years of hockey playing between them, Sandy and Laura were reluctant to let our keeper touch the ball, and were magnificent in defence as well as taking every opportunity to drive the team forward.
The first half saw a period of sustained pressure from Reading, with young Nett (rather excitedly thinking she might, at 41, be the youngster of the team) working tirelessly with Ant (the real youngster), Amanda C and Mary to run rings round their midfield. This allowed the forward unit space and time to run with the ball and attack their goal. The first goal, after some excellent interplay between the forwards, was superbly taken by Liv. Finding herself in the perfect position with only the keeper to beat, she calmly drove to the right round the keeper and slotted the ball home. When faced with a similar situation in the second half the same cannot be said of Liz.... So reliable a scorer is she that most of the rest of us had started to head back to half way for the restart when there was a mini pile up in the goal mouth and Banbury somehow got the ball away. Let's hope normal service will resume next week please Liz!
2 nil up at half time - Sandy fired a rocket into the back of the net from a short corner - and we were feeling good. We knew Banbury were going to come out strong in the second half but encouragement from keeper Nicky and strong performances from our wide half backs meant we felt confident to continue attacking. Emily was at the heart of most attacks, tracking back when needed in defence. Tracy H took a sickening blow to the elbow but such is her hunger for goals she refused to be sidelined for long.
With our side tiring, and despite some excellent saves from Nicky, Banbury managed to pull a goal back. This served as a wake up call and we were very happy to hear the final whistle for a very pleasing 2-1 win. With Scotland going on to beat Wales the weekend couldn't get much better.......according to The author!
The first half saw a period of sustained pressure from Reading, with young Nett (rather excitedly thinking she might, at 41, be the youngster of the team) working tirelessly with Ant (the real youngster), Amanda C and Mary to run rings round their midfield. This allowed the forward unit space and time to run with the ball and attack their goal. The first goal, after some excellent interplay between the forwards, was superbly taken by Liv. Finding herself in the perfect position with only the keeper to beat, she calmly drove to the right round the keeper and slotted the ball home. When faced with a similar situation in the second half the same cannot be said of Liz.... So reliable a scorer is she that most of the rest of us had started to head back to half way for the restart when there was a mini pile up in the goal mouth and Banbury somehow got the ball away. Let's hope normal service will resume next week please Liz!
2 nil up at half time - Sandy fired a rocket into the back of the net from a short corner - and we were feeling good. We knew Banbury were going to come out strong in the second half but encouragement from keeper Nicky and strong performances from our wide half backs meant we felt confident to continue attacking. Emily was at the heart of most attacks, tracking back when needed in defence. Tracy H took a sickening blow to the elbow but such is her hunger for goals she refused to be sidelined for long.
With our side tiring, and despite some excellent saves from Nicky, Banbury managed to pull a goal back. This served as a wake up call and we were very happy to hear the final whistle for a very pleasing 2-1 win. With Scotland going on to beat Wales the weekend couldn't get much better.......according to The author!
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