Saturday saw an unusual Ladies 2nd team play Saffron Walden 5th team. It was unusual because we had Gemma, Jodee, Julie and Claire who usually play for the 1st team. A shortage in numbers and the desire to play the friendly was enough reason to draft in some extra players. It was agreed that the 2nd team ladies should play in their normal positions and the 1st ladies would drift in around. Unfortunately we still had a shortage of 2 players so we borrowed Saffron Walden’s subs. The line up was Lou (GK), Sarah A.(sweeper), Jodee (LB), Julie (RB), Vicky (CB), Cat (CM), Gemma (CM), Hannah (Saffron Walden LM), Sarah C. (RM), Claire (RF) and Imogen (LF).

In the first few minutes a short corner was awarded to Saffron Walden – no score thanks to the fantastic jumping save made by Lou. The ball was struck and deflected off Vicky’s stick up into the air and Lou comfortably pushed it over the goal.

We pushed forward hard with Gemma playing solidly through the middle pushing out to the forwards on the left and right. Julie fought hard against their strongest player with Saffron playing firmly down the left wing. We scored 3 goals in the first half with Cat and Claire scoring one a piece and Gemma worked hard for the 3rd goal but passed the ball to Hannah to score.

After the 3rd goal Gemma was “removed” from her position by Emma (umpiring) and so Gemma became sweeper and Sarah Aves moved into the CM position. At the same time Jodee moved to LM to allow Imogen to play as a defender (which was a good move as she was more comfortable there).

At half time a few changes were made Sarah C moved to RF, Claire dropped back to RM but Hannah was struggling to keep possession of the ball. After Gemma pointed out we didn’t really use the right we tried to improve and push the ball to both sides of the pitch. Julie still battled against her left wing but tried to intercept the ball before it arrived rather than tackling after she had possession. Her logic seemed to be “prevention rather than the cure” and it worked.

With Gemma covering behind the defence the attackers struggled to push through and achieve a comfortable strike at goal so Lou called for defenders to mark up and then Gemma arrived to save the day. We eventually scored again with Sarah C taking the score line up to 4-0 with a cross from Claire into the D. Jodee coped well up the left side with little support but luckily with Imogen backing her up.

The Man of the Match is: Julie for battling hard throughout the game to keep their left wing at bay. With a big thank you for all the 1st team ladies who played and Emma for umpiring.