Ladies 1 vs Broxbourne 2

The sunny stage was set this week for our clash with top of the league. 

We made our way through the badger warren of changing rooms and out into the sunshine for our team talk this week, which was full of positivity and confidence following last week’s performance. 

Broxbourne lined up very confident- who wouldn’t sitting comfortably top with a few point buffer and phenomenal goal difference. We felt good too though with a full squad and the Harpenden Raisers (apparently what our supporters have named themselves) that had travelled to cheer us on. 

It was a bit of a scrappy start, a couple of positional changes and a quick tempo set by Broxbourne threw us a little but we quickly got into the swing of things to create our own chances. Broxbourne attacked the ball well, using triangles and 1-2s to navigate around our man marking tactic , but not enough to completely break us down. 

They did  win a number of short corners, however, our defence got out to them well and it took at least 6 shorts before they were able to get a deflection past (a very tired from her ski trip) Kim . 

We were disappointed of course, but undeterred we set up again and saw the 1st half out just one goal down.

It had been a tiring half and so the fizzy snacks Bryony had provided were guzzled quickly during the team talk , whilst a slight shift in tactics were dealt.

The sun was beating down now and it really was a lovely afternoon for hockey so we were going to enjoy the second half no matter what. 

We upped the ante this time, our aggression levels increased and we marked their main distribution player out of the game. Our hassling was unnerving them, and as such their frustrations had an effect on their play. They were appealing to the umpires, they were complaining constantly and it was clear they have been given far too much respect in this division so far. Our juniors really stepped up : Lily, Amelie, Chloe, Emily and Isla all showed incredible strength beyond their years and the oppo just couldn’t handle it. We pushed them back further and further and with some jiggery pokery up front by our attacking line, we were running them all over the pitch. I mean even I got a shot on goal, it’s unheard of.

Despite all of our fight , we very narrowly missed out on equalising and the game finished 1-0 to the top of the leaguers. However, having managed to prevent them from having any short corners or even a shot in the second half, we were very proud to keep them to a very respectable 1-0 win. It doesn’t help our table positioning, but it has shown us that when we put our minds to it, we can give anyone a game. On to next week’s match against bottom of the league. Can we make it a win?

⭐️Player of the match : Amelie

🌦️Weather reporter Bryony: 6 degrees, 0.9% dew point, 62% humidity 

🍕Teas review: 9/10 . Getting delivered pizzas instead of the previous abysmal set up of having to make your own sandwich has increased Broxbourne’s score in this area. 

😊Pleasant surprise : Our supporters giving themselves a nickname . Shout out to the Harpenden Raisers ( get it, raise the roof, never mind…)