L2s v the Fit & Fast Nomads 2s
Meg BarneWe had a tough game for our first league match of the season - Nomads had a youthful and speedy side. Unfortunately, this coincided with all our younger players vanishing off to uni or the 1st team…
Almost unheard of for the L2s, but nearly everyone actually turned up at the meet time, even the captain! To try to inspire us Dani sent us a quick pre-game video of Alex Danson scoring, but unfortunately in sorting this out had managed to leave most of the warm up balls at home.
Nomads came out hard and fast and we were immediately on the defensive, trying to keep them out of our D. We conceded two goals quite quickly before regrouping and pushing Nomads back up the pitch. Luckily, we have had some great new recruits to the team - Katy zooming up the wings and moving the ball into the opposition, Izzy and Lydia both taking turns at centre half breaking up their attack and pushing balls wide.
Dani and Kath did a good job in midfield, picking up balls and continually putting pressure on the Nomads players. We seemed to have all learnt some great rolls over the summer break and Louisa, myself and Lydia didn't miss an opportunity to face plant and then bounce back up speedily (hoping that no one noticed).
At half time we were 3-0 down so Dani provided a short and sweet talk and two packets of jelly babies to turn things around. It worked - whilst we still lost the game overall we started to communicate much better in the second half and Eimear, Hazel and Kendra fought really hard for scoring opportunities, with Kendra finally getting one in the goal after some tough Nomads' defence. A ball was lifted into Dani but luckily her arm rather than her head took the hit this time
We had several attacking short corners in the second half and really went for them but unfortunately didn't get another ball past the goalie.
Our goalie at the far end also worked hard in the second half and eventually had to defend a penalty flick after Louisa got her foot accidentally in front of a goal strike. I think however Serin, Julie and I could all list several fouls prior to the that moment so we think they probably deserved the flick and the resulting goal. But it was only just a goal after some great moves by Emma!
Throughout the game there was lots for the defence to do - Serin, Julie, Caroline, Louisa and myself had to keep on our toes as the attacks came hard and fast, Serin was cracking out some fantastic tackles and by the second half we were working much better as a team. Unfortunately the final score was 4-1 but well done for some great play ladies!
Many thanks to Laurie on the sideline for coming along to support and organise us.
Louisa Warburton
Many reasons, including forgetting to put her shin pads on, a spectacular fall and finally for giving the umpire an extra reason to award Nomads a penalty flick.
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