Ladies 1's a bad few weeks but a great finish ahead

Monday 21st Feb

Hi all, sorry I’ve not posted for a wile but as some of you know I’ve been working away in London and Manchester for the past month.

Well what a bad time we’ve had.

This half of the season = 4 games, 1 point ! Certainly not what was expected.

Leicester at Home

A very different Leicester visited Wilsthorpe from earlier in the season. After the return of their International players to their 1st XI this filtered down and meant a much improved squad arrived.

Despite taking the lead mid way through the 1st half, 2 quick goals from Leicester just before the break sent them in 2-1 up at ½ time with Leicester playing the better break away Hockey.

The 2nd half started with an horrific injury to Helena. A full on shoulder collision on a 50/50 ball sent the slight Helena to the ground, it was very obvious that something serious had happened. Hels was taken straight to Hospital with some rib damage and after x-rays the more serious injury was confirmed. Hels suffered a double break of the collar bone with a section of the bone suffering CRUSH damage. It was a genuine fair challenge and no blame goes to the Leicester player involved.

Hels had now undergone her surgery and will be out for the rest of the season, we wish her all the best and get well soon.

Back to the game, this injury totally distracted some players and Leicester took full advantage by scoring another 2 goals in 5 mins to finish us off. Bex did get a consolation goal towards the end of the match but Leicester were by far the better team tactically today.

Bridgford Away

Another defeat. There was a subdued atmosphere again today following the loss of Hels, Skaifey on Hols in Thailand, the risk of playing Amanda despite her calf injusy, Lisa suffering with a serious back spasm problem plus other issues, but the team did put in the effort and the miles.

The 1st half was a very tight affair with neither side having long spells on top but you felt it was only a matter of time before the game sprang to life.

On 39mins Bridgford broke and the shot on goal was stopped by an unsighted Beth with her foot on the line. With Lisa unable to be as agile as she normally is Bridgford scored the stroke despite a valiant effort from Lisa’s dive (causing more severe pain).

On 46 mins it got worse as Bridgford broke again forcing a 2 on 1 against our defence, a simple side ways ball saw the Bridgford striker roof a terrific goal to send them 2-0 up.

We weren’t playing badly and on 43 mins Taran scored to bring us closer and raise hope but on 60 mins Bridgford all but sealed the points with a scrambled goal to go 3-1 up with 10 to go.

Disaster struck again though on 62 mins as a reoccurrence of Amanda’s calf tearing sent her off the back line and out of next weeks match.

Once again though we didn’t give up and Rachael added her name to the score sheet bringing us back to 2-3 down and force a tense final 5 mins but Bridgford held on to win.


So to this week

Northampton Away

With no fewer than 5 2nd XI players in the squad this was never going to be easy and so it proved. There’s not a great deal to say about the match, which ended in dejection for most players at losing to a 65th minute PC. It was a very disjointed performance with frustration coming out for the first time this season.

This was a game that with a full squad we would have beaten Northampton comfortably by 4-5 goals.

Summary

With 4 games to go we now need 6 points to survive – what a turn around from just 4 weeks ago when we were thinking about the possibility of promotion. I know that for the most part the lack of wins has been down to Injuries, unavailability and our being unable to field our usual team with the all important subs.

Yes next year will feel different (as I told you all back in January we all have to retire at some stage) but we have to focus on the here and now.

We are a good team and this week we should have all our returning players.

Lisa’s back should be easier.
Amanda’s calf should be well rested now.
Ali is back from Holiday
Kelly is available
Bex will be back from Egypt

so we have a full squad for our match against league leaders Barton this week.

I know there's a lot of emotions raising to the surface right now from all sides of the team, but please hold it together and lets finish this season well just as we started it 4 years ago ...........................................

TOGETHER

GO TEAM DERBY