Playing as a full team at last, (well almost, the girls ‘borrowed’ Olivia Dobson as their goalie for this match as Sophie was away) they were keen to warm up and practise their hitting. Longridge won the toss and Belhaven chose to shoot downhill first.

 

Longridge quickly took control of the ball and the girls soon realised that this would be a close match and they must use their skills and focus on the game. Jeanie and Amelia tried hard in attack and despite the downhill advantage could not get the ball within the shooting area. Longridge were first to score after a few attempts which had been cleared by Sophie and Rosabel or stopped by Olivia in goal. This now gave the Belhaven team a chance to fight back. Grizel and Abigail worked brilliantly on the wings dribbling and passing the ball up to Mairi, Jeanie or Amelia and it was not until Belhaven equalised with a goal from Jeanie. The Longridge team, determined to score again were not going to get the ball past our defence and Rosabel cleared any free hits brilliantly, so hard at times it went off the other end of the pitch. As free hits were taken, Dobo called out instructions to the team – a great help to our players.

 

By half time, the scores were equal and the girls knew they started off the game with far too much confidence. They settled into the second half much better, using the entire pitch and trying to keep to the wings as much as possible. Annabel played well in mid field, intercepting passes and Mairi at times moved back to play a more defensive position as Grizel moved into play attack. Another goal saw Belhaven in the lead and even more determined to stay ahead. Some great stickwork and tackling from Amelia in the centre of the pitch with Abi, Mairi and Grizel to pass to and Belhaven were in the shooting zone again and scored as the ball bounced off the goal post and into the goal.   Longridge were keen to score again and now they had the advantage of shooting downhill, our defence had to make sure they followed the ball and cleared it.   Olivia was kept busy in goal, tackling the attacking players and clearing the balls that came near her. Some footwork errors by our defence gave away some free hits but Longridge did not manage to score from them. In the final few minutes of the game a great pass to Amelia on the wing as she dribbled it forwards, dodging the opposition and passing square across to goal for Jeanie to just give it that final push into goal. A move we have practised so many times, was a pleasure to watch being played.

 

Well done girls a great goal to end off the game. You all played very hard, using your skills today. Every member of the team was brilliant! You all adapted well to using a smaller pitch and a shooting zone rather than a circle even though it was a little crowded at times.