Flapjack and frustration

It was the perfect weather for hockey on this October morning at Coach Lane. And what's more, they parking machine appeared to be behaving. We had pre-match flapjack courtesy of Zoe and warm up music supplied by Chloe’s karaoke.

The focus of our team talk was to take all the positives from last week onto the pitch today. Taking the ball from the first whistle we started positively. with Alice making probing runs from right wing back and the forward line setting the standard with the press.

Despite this, Adel won an early short corner against the run of play. The ball was slipped to the left and slight confusion among the defence in our new set up say the shot creep in at right post.

Our response to going a goal down was to get straight up the other end to test the Adel defence. This was rewarded almost immediately with a short corner of our own. Chell’s first strike from the left was well saved by the Adel keeper.

From then on the play throughout the half was very even. The work rate of our midfield, including Chloe, Isla, Nikki and Anna, meant we had a strong link between the lines. Both teams had periods of dominance but neither could change the scoreline, even with some good opportunities from short corners at both ends.

Our best chance of the half came when Emily won the ball just outside our D and sent it wide to Ashleigh. Using her pace to drive upfield, she cut inside to find Tiny who set up Chell for a strike at the top of the D. Again the Adel keeper made a cracking save to keep her team ahead.

For the second half we had a reshuffle at the back to create more space for us to switch the play and let Pippa control the midfield. This definitely allowed us to open up the left as more of an attacking option with Emily, Chloe and Bobi combining well.

As the half went on and with both teams seemingly frustrated by the lack of goals, despite plenty of opportunities, play got increasingly scrappy and tempers flared. We have seemingly learned our lesson from the early matches and yet again there were no cards.

Our goal led a charmed life for a few minutes late on. Maggie was peppered by the Adel forwards trying to find the net. Eventually a shot made it through only to find Craggs in a good position to clear it off the line.

As we entered the last 5 minutes Adel won a short corner. Emily was judged to have broken the line early on the first attempt and we were left to defend a player short. We saw off the first shot but conceded a second corner in the same play. Still one player down we came under fire again and despite Maggie’s best efforts - perpetually on her toes making save after save - the ball snuck through to double the lead.

We made a last push to get on the scoreboard but time eventually ran out. A frustrating result from such an even game but lots of positives to take away from a game where we stood up to the joint league leaders.

Player of the match: Chell