Ladies IIIs vs Belper Otters 21/02/09. Report by Jessica Honarmand

Before I put on the lovely report by Jess, I'd like to say that Jess fails to mention that from what I've been told, the 1st goal was awesome and was scored by Jess herself . And yes the 2nd goal was awesome too - 'scored by our exceedingly amazing striker Jenny'
xxx


Report by Jessica Honarmand:

We started off the game raring to go, confident we were going to do the best we could. We were also happy by the return of one of our teammates, who we hadn’t seen for a while, Julia. She was an excellent calm asset to our midfield, and team. We started the game off well, fending off the opposition and making good breaks through the defence. Midway through the first half we managed to score a goal to boost our confidence. At the end of the first half we conceived 3 goals, but our goalkeeper, Izzy, was doing brilliantly well, and managed to save at least 5 of their shots. Even though we weren’t winning, we kept our spirits up, and decided to enjoy the second half no matter the score. Despite losing, we managed to score another goal, scored by our exceedingly amazing striker Jenny. Although we lost 7-2 we still enjoyed the match, and chose Izzy as our man of the match, for her brilliant saves.

A Jess asked for support in helping her remember what happened - as she was so engrossed in the game, Dan has also written a few notes...



Match report - A coaches view by Dan Martin

We started off well, although under a lot of pressure. Izzy made save after save and eventually we got a quick break and Jess scored. Unfortunately this seemed to inspire them to try harder, and our lack of games over the last few weeks started to show as we lost our shape and Belper scored a quick flurry of goals. Down 4-1 at half time we reorganised the team to get our shape back and played much better. Belper were the stronger team and still kept the upper hand, scoring three more in the second half, but we caused them some problems and eventually Jenny scored our second and almost got another just before the end. Final result was 7-2, but at least we scored some goals, and got the rust out of our play.

The man-of-the-match award was a bit one-sided, with Izzy getting all the votes except her own ! Louise got a special mention, as well as the remaining vote. From a coaches point of view, Terri and Nathalie were also outstanding, both were out on their feet but kept getting in tackles and making good passes. Sara and Abi also did very well in positions that they had never attempted before. Sam and Julia did such a good job that I almost forgot about them.

The Donkey award also went to Izzy, because she forgot her contact lenses and played the whole game without being able to see the ball. She must have been using her spider-senses or some kind of bat-sonar to make all those saves !

Oh girls I missed you so much. Yes I'm not a trainspotter but I do like playing with the trains but not enough to miss a hockey match

Thank you for the texts and feedback from the game. You are all so lovely that you all just seemed to tell me how everyone else played so well. Great to see Jess as a new goal scorer to the list for this season and yes Jenny has clocked up another goal to keep herself as leading goal scorer. And just generally good to be scoring goals.

Izzy Izzy Izzy, heard there were some amazing saves and that you were ace, well done on MOM. But what's this??? You forgot your contacts and your Dad wouldn't bring them??? You live closer to the pitch than the loos you donkey... yes you deserve the donkey award too

Lots of you played in new positions and played really well. Particualry Abi & Sara. Both new to that left half slot and as we'll not be seeing Rachel H back on the pitch for the rest of this season (see below) this is really promising.

Good to have you back Julia and Charlotte, we've missed you.

Big thank you to Hilary for Umpiring for us and to Sue for supporting us in defence & later as an inner. Sorry Sue, I didn't realise you no longer played in defense.

And yes Rachel's news. She wanted to tell you herself this evening at the Pancake Party (all welcome) but is now unable to come. Gutted that she will not be joining us on pitch for the rest of the season but the great fantastically ace news is that she is pregnant. Yippeee. She said she'll miss not playing with us but has promised to join us at the dinner.

xxx