4th place – By Lisa Nixon
Despite two gum shields being left on the bus and a lost goalkeeping strap, which meant Rosina had to play with one blue pad and one orange, our girls were not shy about getting stuck in.
After a bit of a scrap, which looked more like football, the ball was slipped through to Olivia and she scored and we won the first match 1-0.
After watching some of the other matches we had our game plan in mind. We stuck to it for the match, again a bit scrappy but we spread the ball and there was some end to end goal mouth action. Rosina’s newly named lucky orange pad repelled the ball and we drew 0-0.
Game three was always going to be a toughy. Moor Park were awesome, slapping the ball around and knowing exactly where to pass it; they had not lost a match yet. Our tactics were mark hard and defend strong. We did just that and kept them at bay for two thirds of the game but with mounting pressure. Lucky orange pad couldn’t quite keep the ball out from a strong attack. Another short corner, we just could’t get our feet out the way resulted in a goal and a 2-0 loss.
Immediately on again for our 4th and final pool match, we needed a win to go through to the play offs. There was no time to regroup and to get our heads up. But the girls tackled hard and defended well, but we just couldn’t quite get the ball through for a shot on goal. Right at the end, Rylands had a breakaway shot it was heading towards the far corner of the goal…nooooo ….surely not at this late stage…but no out of nowhere and with a stretch that any of our gymnasts would have been proud of came lucky orange pad to deflect the ball away with power out of the D and off the sideline..fantastic save Rosina. A 0-0 draw – unfortunately not enough to put us through but a well deserved 4th place in our pool.
All in all a great afternoon lots to take away and learn from but most of all great team spirit and lots of fun and laughter had, finished off with a large chocolate chip cookie and juice…
Categories: Achievement