Ladies 3rds beat Burton 3rds 3-0!

We turned up to the land of breweries, marmite and tyres to play against Burton 3rds. Although it was raining, spirits were high and thoughts were positive.

We huddled by the side of the pitch with Rachel and her somewhat smeared laminates, listening to her words of wisdom. We all knew what the plan of action was!

Play started and Burton came out strong but with Gill in goal, scaring off any attackers, the first shot on goal was wide, watched out by Tammy.

With a quick hit out, the ball found it's way to Molly up front who ran it into the D. The keeper ran out at her but she wasn't put off. Unfortunatly though, the ball didn't quite make it in.

The play was very much end to end in the first half, however Derby were definitely the stronger side. Any break from Burton was quickly dealt with. Midfield and defence tracked the ball down and always managed to clear it away.

We fought back with some lovely runs from Julie Ann down the wing. We were awarded a number of short corners, whereby we made some quick decisions on what to do. After a couple of failed attempts we changed tactics again and I pushed out to Rachel. After some quick passes around the D, avoiding the Burton defence, the ball found it's way to Julie Ann on the post who knocked it in perfectly. 1-0!

Half Time soon came and with a chat from Rachel and Andy we were ready to get going again.

Once again Burton came out strong (mentally and unfortunately physically!) but we remained unphased and once again had some lovely movement up the pitch between midfield and the forward line.

When Burton did break through they had our defence to contend with. Steph soon became the seagull off Finding Nemo shouting 'MINE!!!' everytime the ball came near...enough to put anybody off!!! Annie, Hilary, Tammy and Steph made some excellent tackles and cleared any suspect balls. On a couple of occasions however, Burton did manage to break down our strong defence but any shot on goal was soon cleared by Gill who made some tremendous saves.

We were once again awarded a number of short corners and with Hilary pushing out we couldn't fail. A quick ball out to myself and another quick pass to Rachel at left slip resulted in a hit on goal that went past the bemused Burton defence and goalie. 2 - 0!!!

Another fantastic save from Gill was to follow with Burton coming back strong and getting a clear shot on goal.

We soon moved back up the pitch and with a free hit rewarded just outside the 25 yard line our third goal was to come. I quickly took the opportunity to hit it into the D and Julie Ann came into view, getting her stick to it and Rachel finishing it off. 3 - 0!!!

Once again a fantastic team effort from the Ladies 3rds with everybody working well together and communication was brilliant.

As always, Gill played an amazing game in goal and saved many potential goals from going in. Hence she received Player of the Match. Rachel received donkey of the day after going off the pitch with a broken nail.

Thank you to family and friends for coming to watch in the rain and Andy for helping with coaching and substitutions.
Thank you to Dave for umpiring!

Well played ladies!

I left the pitch because I was bleeding!! Do not listen to Andy, I received no broken nails during the match (thankfully ) but did get a cut to my finger that was bleeding quite a lot so I went off with about 7 minutes to go to put a plaster on and come back on. This is where the evil mastermind that is Andy realised he could get one over me...... he told me not to go back on, said that we'd shut up shop and it's good for a skipper to be seen on the sidelines occasionally. Being the trusting idiot I was I said OK....... The second the cheers and handshakes were over Andy loudly announced his nomination for Donkey - me! Something to do with hatrick / jug avoidance. He then went on to tell everyone later that I had come off because of a broken fingernail - Safely say that Mr Taylor is not my favorite person right now

But all that drama aside...... Well done girls! Another great result. We've now beaten all the teams in our league, we're top of the table and we've just got to beat them all twice more! We definitely need to work more on coming out harder after the whistle blows for the start, we do seem to let them come at us a bit too much. I think it's going to be my job to get the team turning up on time and sharper with the warm up so we're raring to go. You have been warned!!

They're all going to be gunning for us now so it's no time to rest on our laurels, we need to work even harder because you can bet that all the other teams will be improving as the season goes on. We couldn't have asked for a better start though and we have plenty to build on.

Thanks to everyone who came and helped out / supported on Saturday. Particular thanks to David Ellis for umpiring and to grrr Andy (it pains me to say it) for his coaching support.

Rach xx

I feel the need of a “Right to reply”

Skippers injury was horrendous, as she left the field with blood pouring from a gaping wound I feared she may even lose a finger or worse an ARM !

She was so brave as she administered her own first aid, carefully stemming the blood flow with a cotton bud and a miniature plaster !

After she had patched herself up she bravely stood by me on the side line saying she wanted to go back on but I feared for her health as she was so pale with the tremendous blood loss she had suffered; I dare not take the risk (Duty of Care and all that)

Her bravery was unquestionable and her passion to return to the field exemplary but the injury itself……………..




p.s GREAT WIN LADIES TOP OFTHE LEAGUE

Not only an evil mastermind but also a comedian

I have to say that it was definitely at least a medium sized plaster - well actually 2 plasters because 1 didn't stem the flow (nuh nuh, nuh nuh nuh - must have been bad!!) and Fuzzy had to administer the first aid as I was with the pixies on Saturday! I would have thought that our esteemed coach would applaud the skipper for following the rules and leaving the pitch when bleeding- well now I know!

I promise next time I won't go off unless missing a limb or unable to see (or have some minor ailment that requires me to take a break....)

xx

P.S It still hurts