Ladies 1st XI Vs Boots 5

When the winter weather comes, and fingers are cold and so are thumbs. A cold dark freezing morning at 9.00am at Boots Lady Bay. The South Notts Ladies tiptoed out shivering…oh, sorry that is yet to come. A steamy hot,  bright autumn morning 29C rising to 32C and on the day we had no available substitutes. Elizabeth (They shall not pass) Turner wrapped up in full goalkeeper kit had all our sympathies

We all sympathised with the men’s teams playing later in greater heat.

We played 4 quarters with 3 water breaks.  This worked wonders and it helped extra consumption of chilled water when most needed. Just right. Well done, everyone

In the absence of Eleanor (Rock of Gibraltar) Wallace, our team moved swiftly out,  led by Vice Captain Freya (Meteor) Beaumont ,giving inspiring motivation throughout.

Now that we have been promoted to a higher league division, we are finding we have much higher quality opponents. Any carelessness or error will be (and is) pounced upon. Hence most of this match report focusses on playing issues which confronted us and which we overcame successfully by massive Team effort and raising our game to match. .

It might be alleged that we might have won, rather than drawing 1-1 but Boots scored first with a breakaway goal and “shut the door”. Our constant efforts resulted in Caroline (the Incomparable) Brackenbury slipping a clever sideways pass to a momentarily unmarked Evie (Shooting Star) Bates. Evie (always dangerous) danced round her opponent and netted the ball very crisply to make it 1-1. Phew.

Boots opened up with a  multi-pronged attack on our goal, capably sent packing  by an in top form Elizabeth (They shall not pass) Turner.  Gemma (Jet=Propelled) Robinson stepped up as sweeper with Jo (Barrier of the Pyrenees) Shaw and Liz (the Fleet-Footed) Foster as full backs. All three looking formidable and invincible. Well, they certainly scared me!

Boots quickly recognised this was a Contest. And in pounding heat, too.

In midfield Caroline (the Incomparable) Brackenbury maintained her usual efficient control over midfield and on either side of her were Louise (Poacher) Price  and Freya (Meteor) Beaumont  using canny anticipation and speed. All giving Boots a hard time.

Up front were Alex (the Spear) Stevenson and Ruby (Rocket) Ryan on the wings, with Evie (Strike Force) Lloyd and Evie (Shooting Star) Bates  in the centre,  all ably and constantly pressuring the Boots defence. Thereby hangs a tale. We were so intent on pressure, that at one point we had 7 players crowding into the Boots D (some too far forward)   and our 3 outfield defenders stationed not far from our own 25m line, (some too far back). Leaving half the pitch empty. So a Boots clearance went into space empty of South Notts but occupied by several Boots players

This caused a multi pronged opportunistic attack on our goal which succeeded in making it 1-0 to Boots

Recognising this, the South Notts defenders thought on their feet and pushed cautiously forward to link up. But we have not quite yet worked out  after promotion  how best to balance cohesive back and midfield support for our forwards without exposing our keeper to impossible pressures.

A factor which stunned Boots was our capacity to contest every ball. If we lost possession in a tackle, we fought to recover and kept at it. Everyone was excellent at this, without exception, but three outstanding players on this aspect were Freya, Louise and Evie.

As a result of the over-crowding in the Boots D, Boots conceded a large number of penalty corners, which we failed to convert. One reason might have been that to begin with, we used only our main tried and tested penalty corner routine. Boots clearly worked out a strategy to counter this, we then developed two more variations, which looked promising but were unsuccessful. As yet.

Every week I try to focus on one plain issue, to see how it fits in to our overall team play. This week it was feet-positioning. The position of the feet when striking the ball is critical in controlling the direction of ball-travel. Keep twinkle-toed, keep the feet moving, maintain perfect balance.  Outstanding players on this aspect were Caroline Brackenbury, Lucy Lloyd , Ruby Ryan and Alex Stevenson who each turned in an amazing performance.

Our Team raised our game to amazing heights, so far unbeaten in a  newly  promoted higher league division, but we need to do this every week. And it is clear than we can do just that.

Well done