Match Report: Ladies 1st XI 19th Oct

Winchester 2-1 Yateley

Yateley travelled to Winchester HC feeling positive after gaining 3 points last weekend. The game started brightly with Yateley playing great attacking hockey and putting Winchester on the back foot. A quickly taken free hit inside the 25 saw Yateley win the first corner of the game, but YHC were unable to convert this.

The game continued at a frenetic pace and the end to end hockey allowed Yateley to attack as a unit. Gemma caused all sorts of problems for Winchester as she attacked through the middle of the pitch and YHC made the most of these overload situations and Becks was unlucky to put a backhand shot just wide of the post.

Slightly against the run of play, Winchester scored the first of the game and this just spurred Yateley on even more to keep pressing forward. Another short corner saw Jen step up to the top of the D and send a blistering strike deflecting off a defender’s stick to bring the scores level at 1-1 for half-time.

The teams remained evenly matched and Winchester’s frustration became evident as some crunching tackles were seen all over the pitch. Yateley battled on with Caty, Nat, Lauren and Becks running themselves ragged to keep Winchester on their toes. Unfortunately, a quick break saw Winchester slot away a goal well into the second half to go 2-1 up.

Yateley never gave up, with the defence working exceptionally hard to keep the ball switching around and find the channels to send the ball through the midfield. Another fabulous run from Gemma through the middle saw her fire the shot into the D; Lauren got a touch to deflect the ball goalward only to see it, frustratingly, hit the post and bounce wide out of the D.

Yateley had so many chances that, on any other day, the game could have been theirs for the taking. Unfortunately, great hockey and grit was not enough to get the three points this weekend and the game ended 2-1 to Winchester.