We welcomed two more new members to the L6 party, and both had a great first game. Well done on excellent debuts from Tatsiana (first match in over 10 years) and Laura (first senior match ever). Tatsiana made lots of great interceptions in midfield. Laura worked hard with great runs on the wing, and held her position well. Whilst practicing short corners we discovered a new secret weapon striker in Becky, and Elly broke her watch (but luckily not herself).

Within the first few minutes of the game, Louise made an early bid for the lemon by getting her feet in the way of a goal bound shot, resulting in a penalty (sorry Annabel!), which was expertly dispatched by Emily to give the 3/4s an early lead. However, the 6s were not daunted by this early setback, which turned out to be the only goal of the first half. Unsurprisingly, it was a tough match, but the 6s played brilliantly. The defense worked their socks off to push back the strong attacking play from the 3/4s. Multiple short corners were conceded, and Rosie in particular was heroic at running one, getting her stick out to intercept a few hits. Annabel had a busy game, making lots of great saves throughout. Midfielders Rhian, Kea, Amy and Tatsiana never gave up and kept driving the ball up towards our forwards.

Despite great man marking from the defense, it was a constant effort to make sure unmarked players didn’t sneak through on our goal, so we switched to a more defensive 4-4-2 formation for the second half to try and ensure we kept the 3/4s goals out. At least that was the plan…. But the 3/4s kept up the pressure and snuck in a few goals. 6s didn’t get discouraged and kept up the energy and enthusiasm.

Overall this was a strong performance by the 6s, and if we play like this next week, there’s a good chance of a win.