Match Report: Ladies 3rd XI 9 Sep

Reading 4-1 Yateley

On a horribly hot Saturday we started our 2023/24 season with the first friendly to get us into the hockey vibe.

The heat meant there was lots of conversations pre-match and, despite the late PB at 4.30pm, we knew we were walking into a bit of a sauna style match with the residual heat hanging on in there.

With the 4’s totally available we were a lovely, blended team of 3’s and 4’s, happy to be back on the pitch at last.

We played a full match albeit 4 x 15minute stints to allow for plenty of water breaks.

So, let the battle commence!
The pitch was slow because it was so wet, but we forgave that as Reading turned the water on and we all dived in pre-match for a good soaking ... that helped with the temperature and our spirits.

With the pitch being so slow that meant that maybe our idea of letting the ball do the work looked like us going to the ball more! Hmmmm!

We had first push back and managed to get the less sunny end of the pitch too.

Reading battled strongly in the first two quarters and managed to spend more time in our half than we did in theirs which meant our defence were busy and Helen hit the deck more than once.

Vicki, Lianne, Lauren Costello and Kerry worked hard covering the oppo forwards. Some lovely moves from everyone. Lauren C, her first outing for YHC, managed to win the ball back a fair few times and clear it up the pitch.

Lauren B was everywhere and put in some stunning runs, matching the pace of the opposition and often outpacing them, winning the ball and moving it into the D where we had KJ, Emily CA, Sharon and Flippa ready to pounce.

We just couldn’t quite find the back of the net.

We came close and Flippa had an extremely near miss from a team effort and a bit of zig zagging in the D.

Reading, unfortunately, were a bit more successful on the back of the net hunt.

Both teams secured a handful of attacking short corners. On the balance of it we managed to secure more and had a crafty set move ready .... Lianne injecting, Caty stopping. KJ drag flick.

We were trying and battling hard. Caty was immense in CM especially as she’d already played a match earlier in the day.

Eventually, with the oppo keeper heading straight for KJ, a neat swerve and KJ scored!

We also had the lovely Emily S with us who was, as always so dependable in defence but also moving us up the pitch and no stranger in the D either.

A disappointing score line 4-1 L but that doesn’t really tell the story of the match.

We had a tonne of fun, it was lovely to get back on the pitch and play our soggy hot socks off.