Batley Struggle Against Bingley Bees

After a disappointing match last week, a bare 11 gathered at our home pitch for our second match of the season. We had confidence going in to this game, having beaten Bingley Bees at the end of last season quite comfortably. We knew we weren’t in as strong a position this week, having only 11 players in warm conditions and missing some attackers.

In a complete change around to last season, we found ourselves with an abundance of defenders and few attackers. Apparently we can’t have all of these positions filled at once.

The game started with only 10 of us on the pitch as Jenni has gotten held up. Unfortunately, the gap caused by this meant we went 1-0 just before Jenni could run on the to pitch. A poor start, putting us immediately on the back foot. We kept our heads up though, knowing we were stronger now we had 11 on the pitch. The game was end to end and we weren’t being outplayed. There were some early marking difficulties and it took a while to pick out the key Bingley players. We conceded a couple of short corners in this time and soon found ourselves 2-0 down.

Jo upfront was playing all over the place, getting lose balls and winning 50/50 tackles, with this and midfield working hard we were able to get the ball up in to Bingley’s half with good regularity. Rach, Jo and Sarah were proving a dangerous combination upfront, getting several attacks through the Bingley defence.

At half time we were still 2-0 down. We were still not downcast, we knew if we could take the game to Bingley and play our game that we would fight back.

We started the second half on a positive note and kept up a constant attack. It wasn’t long before a great shot from Jo lead to the first Batley GOAL! 2-1, we were on the way. Bingley weren’t going to take it lying down though and pushed hard on the break making use of gaps in the field to get the ball through into the Batley half. We conceded another short here, and the ball was fired cleanly in to the back of our net, luckily for us, it never left the D, so was disallowed, but it was worrying for a time.

We were fighting hard in this half, determined to make back the goals and come out of the game with some points on the board. Dannii, Emily and Sarah were making some great runs down the right, aided by Vicky and Gail attack after attack from Batley, unfortunately the pressure went both ways and we soon found ourselves defending another short corner. This time we couldn’t keep the ball out and we went 3-1 down with 10 minutes to go.

Still not wanting to go down without a fight, we attacked hard in the last few minutes, with 5 minutes to go, Jo scored our second GOAL making the score 3-2. We were hopeful that we could score again in the dying minutes, but Bingley had other ideas, defending hard and still attacking strongly. A final attack by Batley saw us hit the back of the new for a third time, unfortunately, it went via Vicky’s foot, so was disallowed.

When the final whistle blew the score was 3-2, but it was a less disappointed Batley that left the field this week, we knew we’d worked as hard as we could to get the game back.

As we left the field, both players and umpires alike were commenting on how nice the game had been. This is something that is beginning to happen with some regularity now at the end of last season and the beginning of this one. Other teams and Umpires have told us what a nice team we are to play and how our games are a pleasure to umpire. This is a credit, not only to us as players, but to our spectators and to the teams that we play. The Yorkshire league really is a nice league to play in and the companionship between teams is remarkable. I’m proud to play for a team that has a good reputation. Every league has teams that don’t get on, but at least for some, that team isn’t us!

Man of the match went to Jo for her tireless effort throughout the game and two goals, making her the first on the scorer table!

Next week we play Leeds away at 4:30pm boo!

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