Match reports - December 15, 2007
2nd XI 1 Old Kingstonians 6 This match was rearranged following the earlier postponement due to frost one early Saturday morning a few weeks ago. Our thanks to Old Kingstonians who agreed to play at 4pm – the only slot available. With the table in our league very congested in the middle this gave us a real chance to jump to just below the top half of the table and then a couple of wins from the top 2 or 3.
The start was frenetic, with us trying to string together ambitious moves when in hindsight we should probably have stuck to basics. We defended well to keep out some good opposition attacks, and begun to settle in attack. However we were then struck by the all too familiar soft goal and momentum swung back to the opposition.
Our failure to close down the man with the ball and another couple of soft goals left us with a deficit of 4 at halftime. The second half begun brightly but as the pitch begun to get fairly icy we managed to concede one more. We did manage to get one consolation goal in a well worked move, which supplemented the numerous passages of play that we did demonstrate what we were capable of.
Unfortunately as it became increasingly cold things heated up on the pitch. A mixture of a few poor tackles by the opposition, a few missed decisions and most of all frustration in the way we were playing began to lead to questioning of decisions. This eventually led to the skipper being yellow carded for his failure to control his team and another left seconds later for chat.
In truth this had little impact on the game as there were only about three minutes left. It was however a very disappointing end to a game that had actually been played in a good spirit by and large. We need to understand that umpires are human and that they do make mistakes and that they selflessly give up their Saturdays for our enjoyment!
We now have a decent squad and have showed in patches what we are capable of. Hopefully 2008 will start on a brighter note. Rob Merry
Guildford Ladies 0 Ladies XI 1 Our last match this side of Christmas saw us at Guildford playing their ladies 2s. We started well piling on the pressure and moving the ball about well. It was not long into the first half before they were getting rattled. Our forwards of Mez (who had an awesome game despite playing slightly out of position!), Dora and Vikki were working hard getting straight onto their hit outs and doing well at intercepting the ball and pressurising Guildford defenders. Throughtout the first half there were a few dummies thrown out of the pram as Guilford began to get frustrated. We continued to keep our cool and play our own game winning us a penalty corner which unfortunately we failed to do anything productive with. Guildford were a fast team and moved the ball quickly up the pitch almost catching us on the break and before long had won themselves a couple of penalty corners and numerous free hits just outside the D. Our defence of Ros, Rosie Tux and Muriel held strong with Katy in goal and no goals were conceded. The half time score was 0-0
Second half we went out hard and had some great play moving the ball from the back through the midfield of Nikki, Sarah Hardiman and Jax up to our forwards. There was some great skill from Vikki and some lovely one touches from Dora. Eventually a breakthrough came with a ball that again started from the back was worked superbly through the midfield to the forwards leaving it to Vikki to complete a beautiful finish and put us 1-0 ahead. From this point on there was no way we were letting Guildford back into the game especially with the attitude of their 12th player – their coach, on the side of the pitch sledging our team and baiting the umpire. Thankfully we had our own 12th player in the form of Baz!! Baz gave us so much support (but in a sportsman like way) in the second half and kept us all going – we had no subs so were running our OC socks off! We kept our cool, defended several more penalty corners but Katy held strong for us in goal and we fininshed the match 1-0. An excellent end to the first half of the season and bring on Jan – not too much Christmas pudding ladies! Jax Joyce
3rd XI 1 Reigate Priory 3 We were beaten 1-3 by a somewhat dubious Reigate Priory team that at a conservative count had three members of higher teams. Playing on a cold December morning after being warmed up by some of Andy Eve's sloe gin, the team stepped forward to face bottom of the table Reigate Priory who had failed to win on the pitch all season. Feeling a little optimistic following last week’s success, the game started with some strong play and good team passing. Within the first 10 minutes the game went our way with a hard drilled ball into the box with Bruce diverting the ball into the roof of the net. As the game developed RP found their feet and strong attacks evolved that were admirably handed by Stu and Jock at their centre defence roles. Chris with Armo held the centre however the stronger abilities of their aforementioned players started to show and Nigel Hawes kept exceptionally well with two fine saves. A slight restructure with Dave L joining Neil upfront and Bruce taking the right midfield solidified the left flank with Adam and Rich doing well together.
Half time came with an obvious call that unless better structure could be found, we were going to concede. The second half started with some good attacks however we started to feel more pressured with the left flank being exposed to strong attacks and Stu been given a run for his money on more than one occasion. RP got their first goal from a short corner from a rising ball over Nigel which was a 50-50 on below the back board but probably a deserved goal. Shortly later, their 26 took the ball, beat three defenders and reversed struck the ball into the middle-right of the net (hardly a weekly occurrence in 3rd XI games!). The morale of the team dropped at this for five minutes and we conceded from a weak clearance with an excellent under cut from the back of the D by theirNo. 91 who thankfully had finally stopped whinging at every decision made or every time he was tackled.
We did pick up with an excellent piece of defending keeping Armo out after a lovely slip past a flat RP defence however the game concluded on this score. MOM, Nigel Hawes. A worthy scoreline considering the players on the pitch, but it is doubtful we will several of our opposition for the return. James Armitage
The start was frenetic, with us trying to string together ambitious moves when in hindsight we should probably have stuck to basics. We defended well to keep out some good opposition attacks, and begun to settle in attack. However we were then struck by the all too familiar soft goal and momentum swung back to the opposition.
Our failure to close down the man with the ball and another couple of soft goals left us with a deficit of 4 at halftime. The second half begun brightly but as the pitch begun to get fairly icy we managed to concede one more. We did manage to get one consolation goal in a well worked move, which supplemented the numerous passages of play that we did demonstrate what we were capable of.
Unfortunately as it became increasingly cold things heated up on the pitch. A mixture of a few poor tackles by the opposition, a few missed decisions and most of all frustration in the way we were playing began to lead to questioning of decisions. This eventually led to the skipper being yellow carded for his failure to control his team and another left seconds later for chat.
In truth this had little impact on the game as there were only about three minutes left. It was however a very disappointing end to a game that had actually been played in a good spirit by and large. We need to understand that umpires are human and that they do make mistakes and that they selflessly give up their Saturdays for our enjoyment!
We now have a decent squad and have showed in patches what we are capable of. Hopefully 2008 will start on a brighter note. Rob Merry
Guildford Ladies 0 Ladies XI 1 Our last match this side of Christmas saw us at Guildford playing their ladies 2s. We started well piling on the pressure and moving the ball about well. It was not long into the first half before they were getting rattled. Our forwards of Mez (who had an awesome game despite playing slightly out of position!), Dora and Vikki were working hard getting straight onto their hit outs and doing well at intercepting the ball and pressurising Guildford defenders. Throughtout the first half there were a few dummies thrown out of the pram as Guilford began to get frustrated. We continued to keep our cool and play our own game winning us a penalty corner which unfortunately we failed to do anything productive with. Guildford were a fast team and moved the ball quickly up the pitch almost catching us on the break and before long had won themselves a couple of penalty corners and numerous free hits just outside the D. Our defence of Ros, Rosie Tux and Muriel held strong with Katy in goal and no goals were conceded. The half time score was 0-0
Second half we went out hard and had some great play moving the ball from the back through the midfield of Nikki, Sarah Hardiman and Jax up to our forwards. There was some great skill from Vikki and some lovely one touches from Dora. Eventually a breakthrough came with a ball that again started from the back was worked superbly through the midfield to the forwards leaving it to Vikki to complete a beautiful finish and put us 1-0 ahead. From this point on there was no way we were letting Guildford back into the game especially with the attitude of their 12th player – their coach, on the side of the pitch sledging our team and baiting the umpire. Thankfully we had our own 12th player in the form of Baz!! Baz gave us so much support (but in a sportsman like way) in the second half and kept us all going – we had no subs so were running our OC socks off! We kept our cool, defended several more penalty corners but Katy held strong for us in goal and we fininshed the match 1-0. An excellent end to the first half of the season and bring on Jan – not too much Christmas pudding ladies! Jax Joyce
3rd XI 1 Reigate Priory 3 We were beaten 1-3 by a somewhat dubious Reigate Priory team that at a conservative count had three members of higher teams. Playing on a cold December morning after being warmed up by some of Andy Eve's sloe gin, the team stepped forward to face bottom of the table Reigate Priory who had failed to win on the pitch all season. Feeling a little optimistic following last week’s success, the game started with some strong play and good team passing. Within the first 10 minutes the game went our way with a hard drilled ball into the box with Bruce diverting the ball into the roof of the net. As the game developed RP found their feet and strong attacks evolved that were admirably handed by Stu and Jock at their centre defence roles. Chris with Armo held the centre however the stronger abilities of their aforementioned players started to show and Nigel Hawes kept exceptionally well with two fine saves. A slight restructure with Dave L joining Neil upfront and Bruce taking the right midfield solidified the left flank with Adam and Rich doing well together.
Half time came with an obvious call that unless better structure could be found, we were going to concede. The second half started with some good attacks however we started to feel more pressured with the left flank being exposed to strong attacks and Stu been given a run for his money on more than one occasion. RP got their first goal from a short corner from a rising ball over Nigel which was a 50-50 on below the back board but probably a deserved goal. Shortly later, their 26 took the ball, beat three defenders and reversed struck the ball into the middle-right of the net (hardly a weekly occurrence in 3rd XI games!). The morale of the team dropped at this for five minutes and we conceded from a weak clearance with an excellent under cut from the back of the D by theirNo. 91 who thankfully had finally stopped whinging at every decision made or every time he was tackled.
We did pick up with an excellent piece of defending keeping Armo out after a lovely slip past a flat RP defence however the game concluded on this score. MOM, Nigel Hawes. A worthy scoreline considering the players on the pitch, but it is doubtful we will several of our opposition for the return. James Armitage
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