First match of 2016

Having eaten too much christmas food, we managed to scrape a team together for the first match of the year. I’m sure you lot all make a pact to drop out at the same time in the same week. We went from having 14 to 10 in a day. Credit to Helen though, she turned up even though she’s popped two ribs, she couldn't play in the end, but lent her kit to Ashleigh so we weren’t without a keeper.

This week saw Hilary and Sophie return! We managed to get 11 players to meet in Bradford in the afternoon. We were disappointed to lose to these guys eariler in the season, as we’d beaten them previously, so we were keen to make up for that loss. We also need some wins, we’ve been severely lacking recently and losing match reports are hard to write.

The first couple of minutes of the game looked worryingly like previous matches, we took a little while to find our marks and Bingley sneaked through. Our defense was strong through and Bingley didn’t get through. Then, quickly, we found our feet. We began to pass and move and use the space on the field. The ball was getting through to the forwards again and again we looked really strong on the attack. We had lots of chances, very quickly. We struggled at first to get through though.

We won and conceded a few short corners. Still it took a while for someone to score. The first GOAL for Batley came from Gail, she did some great work channeling the ball through to the forwards and making that link between midfield and attack. 1-0 to Batley.

We didn’t stop attacking through and were still getting the ball through again and again. Helen says that we panic in the D too much and this is why we weren’t scoring. However, Vicky wasn’t panicking when she got our second GOAL, 2-0 to Batley.

We were 2-0 up at half time and pleased with our play. We definitely looked like the stronger side on the field and Bingley were getting frustrated with our dominance. We knew they’d come out fighting in the second half and were determined to get a good win on this game.

Bingley did change their attacking strategy in the second half, channeling far more play down the right, which gave our left side much more to do and more people to mark. Hilary and Gail were still all over the place, Gail continued to make great play. Her beautiful pass through to Sophie on the right wing left Soph with a 1 on 1 with the keeper which she scored from admirably. 3-0 to Batley, welcome back Soph!

Bingley were looking stronger in this half, and Batley defense was having to work a bit harder, although they did reassure me that they didn’t feel like they had much to do. Our marking was still brilliant and Hilary had come over to help out the left hand side when Bingley sent more players our way.

The final GOAL for Batley came from a short corner. Newby’s shot didn’t quite make it over the line and was finished off by Sophie.

The game ended 4-0 to Batley, a win and improvement in goal difference that we badly needed. Lets hope we can keep it up for the rest of the season. Man of the match went to Gail, because she was basically awesome all the way through the game!

Next week we play Cleckheaton at home.

#matchreport #hockey #batley #batleyladieshc