09/09/18 Headington Ladies v Buckingham Athletic Ladies

Headington Ladies v Buckingham Athletic Ladies, Thames Valley Counties Women’s Football League Division 1, Sunday 9th Sept 2018, OX4, Kick Off 2pm

Team: Hillier (gk), Holly, Emma P, Nicöla, Nimmo, Jemma, CD, Kat, Snowy, Andreea (c), Carrie, Madhana, Vic, Julianna and Chloe.

Score: 1 -6 (Andreea)

Manager: Marc

Supporters Club: Sophie, Nico, Freya, Gemma, Malin, Anna D, Anna Mc, Newport, Baby Newport, Alan, some guy with glasses, & Andreea’s family.

Special thanks to Philip for running the line for us again!!!!!

Our new home kit sponsored by pitchbooking.com. A special thanks to one of our other sponsors, Minuteman press, for printing the logo in time for our first game of the season!

The season is finally upon us, with another new sponsor on the new kit we took the opportunity to have a new team photo! As with last week the weather was warm and the sun shining. With 4 of our 5 center halves missing we had to switch things around a bit putting Nimmo and Emma into the back line.

We lost the toss so had to kick off playing into the sun. We started brightly but then started to struggle, we were winning the ball but then giving it away cheaply. Buckingham were playing three really quick players up front and their midfield were getting in behind our midfield which was opening up the space behind our defence. We worked hard to keep them at bay but they were getting lots of space down the wings. We kept them out but after about 15 minutes our luck left us with Buckingham scoring their first goal. We didn’t learn from our mistakes and made the exact same ones minutes later to go 2 -0 down. Passes were going astray and we were just humping the ball anywhere, we worked so hard to clear our lines but the ball just kept coming back. We then put together our best move of the match so far with the ball being played from defence, through the midfield and up to the strikers with Andreea latching onto a through ball and beating the Buckingham keeper to give us hope at 2-1. We then went on the search for an equaliser and continued to over commit. We were being caught out time and again but dug in and worked hard to keep them out. We then conceded a free kick 40 yards form goal, the ball was played in and hit our crossbar, we stood like statues instead of reacting and allowed Buckingham to score an easy goal. We tried to grab a consolation but didn’t get our shots away. As the half ticked on we were looking ragged, a long ball down the left set their striker off who squeezed a shot in at the near post to put us 4-1 down at the break.

We came out for the second half looking to reduce the deficit and played the exact same way, pressed forward in numbers but then not getting back to defend and this was putting enormous pressure on our defence who were being continually outnumbered 5 on 3. We got away with a few scary moments but it was almost inevitable that we would be breached again. We didn’t put in a strong enough challenge and allowed a Buckingham player to wriggle free and we found ourselves 5-1 down to another near post goal. We made a few changes and started to improve, we were still trying to play at 100mph and attack at every opportunity but didn’t really test their keeper at all. With the game ticking down Buckingham brought their top scorer back on after giving her a 20 minute rest break. We lost possession from an attack and yet again found ourselves outnumbered 5 on 3 at the back and couldn’t stop a Buckingham player scoring past Hillier. We huffed and puffed but didn’t look like getting anything further from the game. We dug in at the back and managed to keep Buckingham out for the last 10 minutes.

So, not a great start…..onwards to the next match!