Close match in the cold

It was a lovely crisp sunny winter morning, it lured us all in with it’s bright chilliness. Then it rain/hail/snowed and we all pretty much froze in place for a while. Then the sun came out again. It was that kind of day.

Driffield had travelled all that way and asked “Is it always this cold down here? it’s never nice weather when we get here!” We definitely have the better end of the deal there, when we visit Driffield at least we get seaside.

Usually we have a close match with these guys so we were looking forward to good game. The game started strong, we had some good early attacks on the Driffield goal but couldn’t quite get through. Then as we were still finding our feet, Kim had to go off. She’s hurt her quad, we hope you’re feeling better soon Kim. This meant we were down to one sub.

Driffield came back strongly against us and were causing some trouble for our defence, but as we found our marks and began to intercept some of the plays we started to dominate in the first half. The midfield were working hard to keep the ball in the Driffield half. Newby and Fretters making some great runs up the field to keep Batley on the attack.

We conceded a short corner that lead to the first goal for Driffield, a clean shot made it past our defence and into the Batley goal. 1-0 to Driffield. We didn’t let our heads go down though and were determined to get the goal back. Jodi made a great run in to the Driffield D with the restart and we had a good strong attack on the back of it. It took some time to get through though, we managed to win a couple of short corners, Tina took the ball in towards the goal, taking through all the Driffield defenders and put in a great cross, which Vicky converted convincingly for the first Batley GOAL 1-1. we were back in the game.

Another great Batley attack saw Fretters having a shot from the top of the D that lifted and only just missed the goal, I’m still not sure how it didn’t go in. The height of the shot had some of the Driffield players complaining, but no one was in the way. The goal would have stood had it gone in.

The first half ended 1-1, we were happy with the way the first half had gone, but knew we needed to tighten up on some marking and get in on the 50/50 balls. Sometimes we just need to want it more.

The second half started well for us, we were attacking and finding the space again, Driffield were struggling to get it through our midfield, but were still getting some attack through of their own. We had a run of short corners the Linda came up to take. It was the third of these that we slipped to Jodi who had a shot. The GOAL was finished by Vicky though who fired it into the net. 2-1 to Batley and 2 goals to Vicky!

Then the snow started, the sky went dark and suddenly we were being pounded with hail. It was freezing and difficult to see. Driffield capitalised on this by having a strong attack on our goal. Batley midfield and defence were there though, keeping the attack at bay and trying not to be distracted by the weather. We did concede a short corner, but Driffield couldn’t convert it into a goal. As the weather cleared, we were still under a strong attack from Driffield. Another attack on our goal saw the ball lifted into our net, and Linda catching it on the line. The umpire blew for a flick, but then the Driffield attacker said that the ball had come off her foot. Saving us from the flick and Linda from probably being sent off. Thanks Driffield.

The game ended 2-1 to Batley, but could have gone either way. Helen kept us in the match several times, despite being really poorly and putting on a brave face! Hope you're feeling better soon! MOM went to Newby who had some usually good attacking runs. The photo frame has been updated accordingly.

Next week we play Leeds Adel at 4:30pm. Boo. Hopefully they will have a keeper this time, so we don’t have to play 11 outfield players again!

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