Match Report: Ladies 1st XI 1 Dec

Yateley 2-1 Winchester

After battling hard yesterday to leave with no points to show for their efforts, the Ladies 1s were determined to put in a strong performance in the Hampshire Trophy against Winchester 2s. Having faced them in the league, and lost, earlier in the season they knew this would be a tough match but one that they could definitely win.

Tired legs from Saturday did not stop the match starting at a high tempo with both sides allowing each other little time on the ball. Pressure was put on the Winchester D but strong defending from Winchester meant that no goal was going to come easily.

Ruth drove the ball into the Winchester D and found a foot to win a corner. A left slip option was the call and Ams sent in a perfectly placed ball across the face of goal. Ruth ran in front of the goalkeeper and managed to get a deflection and put the ball up into the back of the net past the keeper.

The rest of the first half was a real battle with Yateley having to play some of the half with only 10 players due to over-zealous coaching from the side-line. The team dropped back and defended as a unit and held their 1-0 lead into half-time.

The second half started brightly too, but, unfortunately, Emma picked up an injury and couldn’t continue and Yateley were down to just one sub. Winchester were desperate to find the equaliser but the defensive rocks of Lizzie (MoM), Gemma, Ams and Siobhan were not going to let Winchester find any chink in the YHC armour. Rappers, Loz, Lynn and Caty worked tirelessly up front and several corners were won but not converted. The midfield of Ruth, Jen and Gibbo were battered by the Winchester defence but never gave up with lots of advantage played by the umpires.

Late in the second half, with victory in their sights, a quickly taken free-hit by Winchester, just outside the D saw the player put the ball on their reverse stick into the goal to make it 1-1.

Yateley knew that they did not deserve to face Winchester in flicks and dug deep, knowing that time was running out.
In the dying seconds of the game Ruth picked up the ball wide on the right and played a first-time ball to Jen, who had made a fantastic run down the middle of the pitch and to the top of the D. Put under pressure by a defender closing in, Jen took a shot that took a deflection of a defender and gave YHC a much-deserved goal. Cue huge cheering from the fabulous YHC supporters!
There was not even time for a re-start and the match ended 2-1 to YHC.

Massive thanks to the big crowd of supporters who came to cheer the ladies on – it really does make a difference!!