Ladies 1st XI Vs Trent Vale 1

A beautiful, creative, highly competitive game by both sides in perfect hockey weather. What struck the South Notts supporters was the physical fitness and athleticicsm of our team. Clearly the late summer Thursday training has had beneficial results. Evie in particular seemed to have her finger permanently on her accelerator button and yet carried on at cruising speed to enable her to be in perfect position for perfect creativity every time. And the rest of our Team were up there with her

Among our noisy, happy supporters, were the Freya (Meteor) Beaumont fan club, among whom were USA relatives of hers who had travelled to the UK to admire our South Sensations and Freya in particular. Add to that, the fan clubs of Sophie (Tigress) Atkinson and Evie (Shooting Star) Bates, and Louise (Poacher) Price shimmering up to support with her usual enthusiasm. With arrivals of the Men’s 3rds who came early to cheer on our Ladies, our Team heard a welcome and encouraging Wall of Sound.

Back in strength for the Team were Rachael (Unseen Raider) Grupping, Liz (Poetry in Motion) Foster, Lucy (Strike Force) Lloyd and the evergreen Elizabeth (They Shall Not Pass) Turner putting on the goal-keeper pads and mask.

Eleanor (Rock of Gibraltar) Wallace gave a great pre-match Team pep talk to instil a great sense of purpose, reminding us of the necessary cohesion and control that our Team had at the end of last season. And needed again. This was Trent Vale’s first match after the summer break and while they might be a bit rusty, they are always a formidable opponent.

South Notts put our midweek training drills into ready action. We started well by keeping Trent Vale largely pinned in their own half, passing the ball around our Team almost at will, playing wide.

But Trent Vale were not having that.

In a moment of over-confident relaxation, we nearly let Trent Vale go ahead when a slick counter- move down their left wing was whipped across to the centre. As most of us were up in support of our strikers, in a heart in mouth moment, this looked very dangerous. South’s supporters fell silent in horror.

But Elizabeth Turner, close to her imperious best, spread her wings to make a dramatic save, and cleared the ball away to help set up another attacking move by twinkle-toed Lucy (Strike Force) Lloyd in centre midfield. Lucy swung the ball out to Freya. Trent Vale’s defence was nearly ripped apart by Freya’s Meteor-like speed. But still no goal.

Trent Vale‘s fast forwards put great pressure on our  defence, which were largely mopped up and cut off by energetic Eleanor (Rock of Gibraltar)Wallace, Jo (Barrier of the Pyrenees) Shaw and  Fleet-Footed Liz Foster. Solid, unyielding, showing as a defence Team, the all-seasons dependability of a weatherproof fence. And dazzling sprinting performances by all. Much to be admired. And were.

Then South’s ever-fresh and ever-capable midfield of Lucy (Strike Force), Sophie (Tigress, Swift to Pounce) Atkinson, and Gemma (Jet-propelled) Robinson began to endeavour at high speed to take commanding dominance, to limit the freedom of movement of Trent Vale’s attackers  We swung clever passes either way, using both our speedy wingers, Rocket Ruby and Electrifying Ella. Beautiful play.

With cunning through-balls from midfield, and with ball of kinetic energy  Becky Humfris, and Rachael (Unseen Raider) Grupping running off the ball up front to draw defenders, or to get unmarked, all this kept Trent Vale on the back foot and opened up opportunities for all our light-footed forwards. 

This Teamwork was greatly helped by All Stars Rachael Grupping and Evie Bates tracking back to keep close links with midfield. They showed both tackling back, showing real hunger for the ball, and outstanding nimbleness in weaving forward with such skill, no need to bulldoze.

All of our forwards showed explosive elasticity, the ability to stop and twist, to dip and shift, to whip the ball from one side of a bamboozled defender to her other. Beautiful to watch and admire.

It was no surprise to see Swift to Pounce Sophie Atkinson working closely with the inexhaustible Lucy Lloyd in midfield to shut down at an early stage the Trent Vale attacks. Both, with wonderful precision-passing, played the ball wide, made through-passes and even took the ball through themselves. Causing deep disarray in Trent Vale’s marking. Cunning and brilliant.

South’s Team consistent pressure began to tell. Becky (Comet) Humfris was unmarked for seconds, quickly noticed by Electrifying Ella.  Becky took advantage of a superb, neat pass from Ella to drill it in hard to make it 1-0.

This sequence was repeated a bit later by Tigress Sophie cutting off a pass, side-slipping the ball to Lucy bobbing through. Lucy ensured that the temporarily unmarked Rocket Ruby Ryan received a sensational opportune pass, on which Ruby took her usual advantage 2-0

Then after countering another Trent Vale brilliant breakaway, Gemma Robinson sped through and shrewdly set up an 8 phase counter-attack which spun up through the Team, ending with Ella Pearce collecting a pass at high speed from Comet Becky, creaming through, and confidently striking the Trent Vale back-board, 3-0 at half time.

Trent Vale refused to crumple and in the half time interval must have re-worked and re-planned their defensive tactics.  Successfully.

At half time Captain Eleanor said we were giving a good representation of ourselves and were beginning to start finding it consistently. She noted that Trent Vale were doing most of their attacking down the middle which made it easier for us to shut them down. But she expected that this would change in the second half. Renewed effort needed on cutting off attacks at an early stage to prevent breakaways, and to keep up our attacking pressure on Trent Vale.

Trent Vale deserve credit for finding a way into the match with limited possession and fewer chances. We saw great thumping strikes at our Elizabeth in goal who brilliantly sent them packing, time after time. The game became much more even, as we too rained thunderous strikes at their goal. South were still on top in the second half but we failed to convert chances into goals. And Elizabeth kept our goal line intact. Phew.

Our supporters admired dizzyingly admirable passages of play from our defence, our midfield and our forward line, settling in to renewed Team work as the league season begins. A great “friendly” non-league match to help us achieve our potential in the league matches to come.  Well done everyone. 

Thanks to Caroline Brackenbury for organising it and to umpires Neil Batty and Graham Morgan for their capable handling, making it enjoyable for everyone