Match Report: Ladies 1st XI 28 Oct

Yateley 2-1 Henley

The Ladies 1s played Henley L2s at home on Saturday. Henley were sitting above Yateley in the table and this was always going to be a close match. Luckily, Kealey was switched on with an early ball collect during the warm-up, which may well have been pivotal in the outcome of the game.

The match started with Yateley playing confidently in the opening minutes. However, one of the first attacks from Henley led to the first penalty corner of the game. Yateley ended up facing this corner with only 3 defenders after the defence broke early, and this unfortunately meant that Henley took the lead against the run of play.

Yateley responded immediately, with an attack down the right that saw the ball slipped into the D and through a sea of sticks and players. Nat managed to get her stick to the ball and equalise, only minutes after Henley had scored, to bring the score to 1-1.

Yateley headed into half-time at 1-1 and the talk was of needing to win some corners and utilise the skills of our midfield more. This tactic worked well and Ruth ran the ball into the D, draw a Henley stick tackle and won Yateley’s first corner. Penalty corner practise is paying off and, although the Henley GK made an initial save, Kealey worked well to pull the ball back across the D where Miles confidently fired the ball past the Henley keeper.

Yateley settled as the second-half progressed with some pacey attacking from Kealey down the wings and Hannah causing the defence some headaches with her stick skills! The new combination of Sophie and Jen at CB is developing well and there were some moments of great team hockey across the team. Final score Yateley 2 Henley 1 and the L1s make a steady climb to 3rd place in the league.

MOM – Kealey
DOD – Kealey (I don’t usually mention DOD but it was such a clear and spectacular win, with so many reasons, that it is a shame not to).