Girls' Hockey: U11a Season Report

U11a Girls’ Hockey
Season 2019

The girls have been a super group to coach this term.  Everyone in the squad has sought to improve their skills and worked hard at passing skills, dribbling  and moving into a space.  With lots of interest at the start of term for goalie, Hester took on this role and has been amazing.  The defensive duo in Poppy and Grace have been a force to be reckoned with at times with Alice T also dropping back to help defend, going for every tackle that came her way.  In the middle of the pitch, Lucy and Davina have learnt to stay in position and have been a good link between the attack and defence.  The attack is also a strong unit and, led by Eliza with Alexandra and Alice R on the wings to help, they have scored a fair number of goals this term and have been persistent during matches. 

The first match of the season saw the girls face Mr Riddle’s U11 team from Loretto.  A great start to the term saw an impressive 10 goal thriller, with the Belhaven girls making a comeback to finish the game 5 - 5.

Their second match was a warm up the day before the Loretto 7s against the touring team Cundall Manor.  Cundall is known to be an impressive team and our girls rose to the challenge.  Playing on our school astro, 7-a-side, the girls soon found out how good a side their opposition was.  By half time we were trailing 1 - 4.  The girls needed reminding to ensure they moved with the ball and the second half was a completely different game.  The girls spaced out on the astro and became used to playing with just seven players and, in an exciting second half, they went ahead to win 6 - 5!

The following day, the girls headed off to Loretto for their tournament.  Playing a round robin, the girls had a mixture of results, which saw them play Cundall Manor in the Semi Final.  Having lost this they went onto play and beat St Mary’s in the Plate Final.

Their next home match of the season was against St Mary’s and, having already played them at the Loretto 7s, (gaining a draw and a win) they knew St Mary’s would fight back in this match.  Having learnt to play from the first whistle, the Belhaven girls went into the lead early on and maintained their excellent play during the second half to secure another victory. 5 - 1

Just before half term, the girls hosted Craigclowan at Hallhill.  A super first half saw the Belhaven stay on top of the opposition, going into half time 3 - 0.  A hat-trick from Eliza in the second half and the whole team's determination to stay ahead, saw the girls win 6 - 4!

The second half of term saw some tough fixtures: Cargilfield, Ardvreck and Fettes.  Having played all three teams at the IAPS Qualifiers, during which all three of them finished ahead of us so the Belhaven team finished 4th.

A tough match against a well-drilled Cargilfield was next on the fixture list and the main aim for the game was to reduce the difference in goals.  The girls played hard on the pitch, enjoyed playing some short corners and finished the game with their first non-tournament loss of the season. 2 - 5

Sadly, bad weather cancelled play at Ardvreck but they were able to travel down to ‘Sunny Dunny’ to keep the fixture.  Unfortunately, we were a few team members down this match, but it did allow new players to make a debut for the U11a team.  Ardvreck was also a tough team to play and soon moved ahead in the match making it difficult for the Belhaven team to make a come back.  1 - 6

The Girls' next match, against Fettes, was possibly the best match of the season. Every member of the team showed how much they had improved this term and the final result was a draw.  0 - 0

A late cancellation for Loretto saw the Belhaven team have one last match of the season.  We knew Loretto would want to win this as we had previously drawn and beaten them in tournaments.  A very close game saw Loretto win by one goal. 3 - 4

December 2019 KG