| Match Report |
3 November 2018
South Notts Ladies (“The Terriers”) v Redhill in the Shield competition
Well, we call this TEAM, “The Terriers”. Intelligent, confident, stylish, stubborn, and brave. Above all, persistent, never giving up, always sharp thinking and always on the move.
Junior players:-Ruby, Issy S, Izzy B, Abbie and Kate. All deserve 5 ***** for skills and ten for effort.
Captain Beth gave us a stirring pep talk before leading our energetic team into the arena. To be confronted by a mature experienced Redhill side who were determined to made this a victorious visit.
We concentrated on two main things:-
1. Playing wide and making ourselves visible for passes out of defence. ACHIEVED.
2. Keeping as a TEAM and no gaps between defence/ midfield and midfield/forwards. ACHIEVED.
Redhill catapulted at us with grit and determination, only to be confronted by the rapier steels of Sophie, Jo and Alice. And if Redhill got past that stubborn wall, they had the sparkling Mel (welcomed back after her injury) and then goalkeeper Elizabeth to contend with. Directing our defence with clear purpose; swatting away Redhill attacks as if they were mere flies.
Caroline dominated midfield and made spectators quite tired to watch her splendid speed and superb skills. Persistent Issy S kept a running supply of shrewd passes up to the forward line. Five star * Abbie ran and ran , intelligently collecting balls out of defence , beating opponents and making an endless provision of clever balls forward into empty spaces for our forwards to pounce on.
Izzy B/Kate were back in solid defence, and up front with the forwards, in driving attack. Without them, it would have been difficult to maintain our overall control. Clever strategy.
Up front, Beth is surprising us all with the ground she covers so intelligently, with the passes she intercepts, and with such befuddling of her opponents. Confident Ruby’s catapulting speed down the wing picked up clever passes into empty spaces, and raked the ground behind their defence. Constant and skilled attack.
We scored first but Redhill equalised seconds before half time. All to play for, and what happened? The TEAM raised our game.
Early in the second half, the Terriers scored twice more to make it 3-1, and this rattled experienced Redhill’s confidence. That was the final score line. Phew.
Lessons to be learned:-
1. The Terriers made ourselves more visible to our defence, as planned, but we could improve on playing even wider to put the opposition under greater pressure.
2. Sometimes Terriers are too hesitant in the tackle, sometimes Redhill got there first. But the very same players were fast into the tackle and got there first. So that was intermittent, but improving each week. Well done, the TEAM.
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