Halifax

Car lottery done and we were off, Amy driving off a cliff in her van, dogs on motorbikes and Megan insisting she understood her SAT NAV that was pointing in the wrong direction, we all arrived ready to prepare for the steps. Poor Hannah, in polite anticipation for the flapjack nearly choked when she was eventually informed it had a dreaded banana in it, Fi desperately trying to get rid of her bananas, but not a single chat about cleaning to be heard ….. we meant business today!

Our warm up was short and sweet but we felt calm and relaxed in this far too hot and sunny October morning. We started well with some lovely transfers, passing and movement off the ball. Mairead was causing lots of trouble to the middle, with the mids linking well to find the forwards creating some good chances. At the other end of the pitch we were allowing Halifax to create their very own chances with 1 on 1 keeper training for Amy. Amy was absolutely loving this, she didn’t have a choice, it was save it or let a goal in, not a defender in sight! Amy was awesome, narrowing down the angles and nothing got passed her. Amy was so involved in the game from a 16, Lou decided to pass the ball along the back line for Amy to clear or maybe it was for Hels who was blinded by the umpire (must take note from Hannah, who yet again had to politely ask the umpire to move). Amy was loving life so much, she cleared it to their CF at the top of the D for more shooting practice.

Moving away from the ‘exciting defending’, we did create 2 short corners the 2nd was nicely converted by Fi. To make it 1-0’at half time. A good half with some excellent hockey played by all.

2nd half and with the aim to keep transferring the ball, stay calm and work for each other, we were off. We did just as we planned with some lovely short passes all around the pitch and the long balls played at the right time. It wasn’t long before we got our 3rd short corner, which saw Megan spin the ball into the back of the goal. The next 20minutes we knew we had to dig deep, continue to push for more goals. Halifax had other ideas and they did put us under a lot of pressure. It’s was a bit of blur with some memorable moments
- Iona moving to meet an aerial and for the 2nd week heading it.
- Liking the look of the chairs so much and so close to her birthday Laura received her 1st ever card and to top it off it was a yellow!
- Suze also took a seat (not that anyone knew about it)
- Lou sliding into action again
- Fi playing the game of ‘fake or real’ after her falls.
- Amy liking it rough

Halifax did convert a short corner to make it 2-1 and the last 5minutes were a little manic, but we survived and as the final whistle was very welcome. A 2-1 win away from home, an excellent demonstration of how hard work, belief and positive chat works……… and a goalkeeper called Amy Wegrzyn-Miller helps!