07/10/18 Headington Ladies v Caversham Ladies

Headington Ladies v Caversham Ladies, Thames Valley Counties Women’s Football League Division 1, OX4, Kick Off 2pm

Team: Hillier (gk), Jemma, Nicöla, Freya (c), Madhana, Emma P, Cecile, Danielle, Gemma, Snowy, Mary, Holly and Kat.

Score: 2 – 8 (Gemma & Mary)

Manager: Marc

Supporters Club: Malin, Alek, Anna Mc, Newport, Alan, Angel and sleeping baby newps!!

Thanks to Philip for running the line for us again!!

Ahhh back home at OX4, my word it was very busy today! We won the toss and that was about as good as the next 40 mins got. We didn’t start very well, we were all over the place, Caversham came at us, they had 2 wingers and they were enjoying so much space down the wings, more worryingly was they were constantly being fed the ball. It was exhausting work trying to keep them at bay. We stood up to the challenge for about 10 minutes before we succumbed. It looked like a cross was played in from the right and like a bullet went in off the far post, if that was meant it was a hell of a finish. We then started to panic and looked ragged. I have to put my hands up for goal no 2, sorry, got my studs caught and couldn’t get a challenge in. We were a bit shambolic and after about 25 minutes we were defending out wide left when a needless trip handed them a penalty, Hillier so very nearly got to it but 0-3 and we were looking dead and buried. We kept plugging away and riding our luck. After about 40 minutes we cleared the danger from our penalty area and advanced up the levels towards the Caversham goal where Gemma slotted past their keeper, great play and a great finish! We were suddenly buoyed and the confidence started to return, two minutes later a ball down the right found Mary who worked past a defender before opening her Headington account with a lovely finish!! Great stuff, we were back in it and were pressing for a third, sadly the half ran out just as we were hitting our stride.

The second half kicked off and it wasn’t long before disaster struck, a pass from midfield to Jemma was intercepted by their winger who wacked the ball as hard as she could from 30 yards and it sailed in over Hillier’s head. This knocked the stuffing out of us, several minutes later and it was game over, a sloppy piece of play in midfield lost us possession, the midfielder strode forward and hit the ball as hard as she could…and it just sailed in over Hillier. The game was well and truly over as a contest and we were now facing a cricket score. We were all over the place and conceded a sixth after about 70 minutes with another shot from outside the 18 yard box sailing over Hillier. We made some changes and tried out a new centre half partnership. We lost possession in the Caversham half and allowed a player to run with the ball for 30 yards before she shot past Hillier unchallenged. Minutes later a near identical goal was scored, possession was surrendered and then it was a case of players running at our defensive line and scoring past Hillier. It could’ve been worse as they also hit the bar.

Player of the match: Emma P and Jemma tie for the new (and not bought yet (sorry!!)) potm trophy!!..we’ll just pretend there was a trophy!!