Ladies 1st XI Vs West Bridgford 6 Development

Captain Eleanor (Rock of Gibraltar) Wallace led out her troops on a cold and blustery day. The Sensations All-Stars squad was itching for action so the warm up run-round was more energetic than usual. The South Notts supporters on the touchline (Strong Men all) quaked at the thought of the firepower likely to be unleashed on West Bridgford.

It was believed correctly that we had improved in Teamwork in the last few weeks but we quickly noted that West Bridgford had been doing the same and that they were dead keen to try to establish dominance over our Sensations All-Stars.

Euan commented later that he had been trying to do just that for 10 years, (with absolutely no success) and he was confident that West Bridgford Ladies had NO CHANCE.

In her pre-match briefing, Eleanor stressed the need for Teamwork, for Defence and Midfield to act as one unit, to ensure our Forwards had a good and regular supply of the ball. And to no surprise, it seemed that what she said was listened to and followed by the whole team.

We played a number of rolling substitutes and not all of them were playing in preferred positions, and many in our team were not playing in preferred positions. But innate skills and high determination overcame these issues as a TEAM and we prospered. Well done, everyone.

We looked like a Team far better organised than our visitors. Confident, well-drilled and coherent. Thank you Thursday training.

West Bridgford opened up as usual with a series of fast pre-planned attacks on our South Notts goal. But they had to face serious hurdles to get past.

Elizabeth (They shall not Pass) Turner  as keeper noted that it was even colder than sunny Spain and believed that energetic activity in her D, demonstrating her full magisterial authority, would help to keep her warm. Occasionally the West Bridgford numbers counted (at one point we had 9 attackers  up front, only 1 defender plus Elizabeth in goal. Elizabeth as keeper, used her agility to make a sequence of necessary brilliant saves.

And effective too, if the ball squeezed past the Terrible Trio of the scary Tigress Sophie (Swift to Pounce) Atkinson, highly competent Freya (Meteor)  Beaumont, and shrewd director of operations Eleanor (Rock of Gibraltar) Wallace (in that alphabetical order),

Sophie A absolutely shone like a tropical sunbeam in cutting off West Bridgford’s cunning passes. Unerringly. No small part of her brilliance, that when the team needs her presence, she is always there. In position and creating clever opportunities.

Gemma (Jet Propelled) Robinson on one occasion intercepted at speed a brilliant West Bridgford clearance, shimmered and swayed past opponents to set up a 3 phase attack. Out to Ella then in to Becky who hit her accelerator pedal and cruised through at full power. Spectators and team mates alike could see her take a deep breath as she leathered the ball into the West Bridgford  net.

Vice-Captain Freya Beaumont has a speciality in “getting in the way” of opposing forwards, quite legally, quite properly and at great speed. Effective and creative. Helped to ensure coherence between midfield and defence

And of course to get to that point, West Bridgford-had also to get past Captain Eleanor Wallace who was almost scorching the pitch in her speed. “Weatherproof fence” time.

All very efficient and hats off to our Thursday training evenings and the Thursday coaches.

In midfield, there were (Lightning) Liv Biddulph breaking regularly through planned defences, formidable  Steph (The Wall) Hagerty, Twinkle-toed Lucy (Strike Force) Lloyd, and Gemma (Jet-Propelled) Robinson (in alphabetical order).

We were forcing their midfield into backwards manoeuvres and eventually long, over-hopeful balls

On one occasion, Liv broke free of close marking, slipped a cunning pass sideways to Gemma, who took it at speed past an opponent to bullet it up to Ella who stormed forward and nearly completed our plan of attack. Right across the pitch to Ruby Rocket who lapped up the stellar opportunity on the run and positively sizzled the ball thunderously into the back of the West Bridgford net

Steph’s bobbing and weaving, with clear attacking intent, clearly mesmerised and puzzled her opponents as her neat passes kept lancing through West Bridgford’s line-up. Then tracking back energetically to cover any counter-attacks.

Lucy too, was providing intelligent balls to our forwards, insistently and consistently, neat clickety-click close passes, long balls, and through balls. Lucy caused on more than one occasional gasps of admiration from the Sensations Supports Club spectators. One example was when an opponent neatly stopped a ball and looked round for someone to pass to. Big mistake. Lucy swiftly took it off her possession, leaving her opponent open mouthed in astonishment. And Lucy set up another devastating attack. Scored 1 goal and was part of the creation of most of the other goals.

 Gemma showed both tackling back, showing real hunger for the ball, and outstanding nimbleness in weaving forward with such skill, no need to bulldoze. Involved as part of the Team in setting up several goals

Defence and Midfield were clearly On Fire for our Forwards. Because were at full stretch, our nippy Defenders and Midfielders used the gaps to set up 3 and 5 phase attacks to enable Becky, Rachael, Ruby, Evie and Ella to try to get their names on the team score sheet.

Evie (Shooting Star) Bates had cleared away her cricket gear and clearly had got out her running shoes for evening runs to help build stamina and acceleration. Evie dazzled with really sharp, intelligent play and, cleverly getting unmarked, scored a brilliant goal.

Rachael Grupping shimmered as the Unseen Raider, arriving in the opponents’ D unexpectedly and creating havoc. Collecting at speed on the run, bullet crosses from Ruby and Ella and so making life for the oppo keeper very uncomfortable. Scored 2 superb goals and just missed a memorable hat trick

Electrifying Ella Pearce used enough energy for 5 players, and kept on pressing her accelerator pedal. The Ella supporters club were (almost) struck silent in admiration, but their noisy cheers kept on ringing round the ground. A combination of perpetual motion and amazing hockey skills intelligently used. Scored 2 clever goals and had a hand in many more. Perhaps a hat-trick next time?

Becky (Comet) Humfris, between her 4 impressive goals, kept running off the ball up front to draw defenders, or to get unmarked, trying for the double hat-trick. On one occasion she touched the ball home from close range, a stunning assist from Lucy for Becky’s first goal as Becky had “read the runes” and was neatly in position. Becky had stolen in expertly to collect Lucy’s pass and score.

Ruby (Rocket) Ryan seemed to have been in training all week for the next Olympics GB sprint relay team with time taken to hone and polish her already marvellous stick-work skills.  Scored 1 goal and involved in several more. Getting round the back of the West Bridgford defenders

All this tried to keep West Bridgford on the back foot and to open up scoring opportunities for us. What a bunch of players we have. The growing crowd of South Notts supporters were full of noisy admiration and cheers.

Back were the passing angles and movement and control of midfield that has been so successful so far this season. Effective devastating control

How did we end up?  A few minutes from full-time, the score line was Becky 4, Ella 2, Rachael 2, Ruby 1, Lucy 1, Evie 1,  11-0.

But then in the closing minutes, a shaft of sunbeam shone out on one of our defenders, Sophie A, and Eleanor encouraged her to run up and if Sophie wanted, to show our forwards how to score a goal out of nowhere 

At that very moment, Lucy had turned and nudged an exquisite pass through a gap, catching the defence square. Another flash of Lucy ingenuity. Sophie was still running up, collected the loose ball and banged it in from close range. The ball was hit so hard by Sophie that spectators thought it might have dented the backboard.

12-0 and Captain Eleanor was delighted with our Team performance. A good start to the season.

The score-line did not truly reflect the ebb and flow of the game. Despite our 12-0 victory, West Bridgford kept us on our toes with plenty of attacking moves. But Elizabeth Turner and the other Defenders and Midfielders wisely kept in touch, adhered to our game plan, shut down attacks and set up our own