The Last Match Of The Season

For our last match of the season we were playing Bradford at home. 14 of us met on the sideline prepared for a hard fought game. We always have good games against Bradford. They have a particularly strong midfielder with a terrifying hit who has become quite infamous in the league. So we planned to mark her as closely as we could.

It was also our last match with Daz umpiring as he has decided to do less matches next year and will not be down at Heckmondwike any more.

The game started and it became clear very quickly that when we dropped our marking, Bradford were going to be quick to take advantage. It was end to end stuff, we had our chances and so did Bradford.

We found our feet and started to play our game. Working the ball around midfield we were making use of the space, although we were struggling to get the ball out from hits from the back.

Our first chance came when we broke through and the forwards were able to take the ball around Bradford’s strong defence. Gail was able to capitalise on this and score the first GOAL for Batley 1-0.

Bradford weren’t taking this lying down and were straight back on the attack. Linda did a great job of keeping Bradford out the D and Helen saved our skin a couple of times.

At half time we were 1-0 up and pleased with how the game was going. We needed to be careful of the easy layoff and aware of the clever movement on Bradford’s hit outs.

The second half started with Bradford making it clear they were out to win this. They won some short corners and were really keeping us on our toes. We were still having our fair share of attacks though and kept getting the ball up the field and intercepting the Bradford hit outs. We had a couple more close shots on goal but no joy.

Eventually we won a short corner and Linda stepped up to take it. Her clean, fast hit was unstoppable and she scored our second GOAL 2-0 to Batley!

Bradford were straight back on the attack and a couple of times we found ourselves on the backfoot. The defence and Helen were working hard keeping Bradford at bay. Fretters and the midfield were keeping tabs on the strong Bradford midfielder and trying to keep her at bay. Eventually though she broke through, taking the ball and hitting it from the top of the D. There was no stopping it, although Helen got close. The score was now 2-1 to Batley.

We really wanted the 3 points from this game, so needed to be careful for the rest of the match. There were a few moments where we were in trouble, but some great runs by Vicky and Tina on the right meant we had some great chances in the last few minutes too.

The game eneed 2-1 to Batley, a great win to end the season on. Team photos after the game turned in to carnage as everyone piled on Helen, sorry Helen!

MOM went to Linda for keeping tabs on Bradford’s strongest player.

And that’s it, I have a rest from writing match reports in the summer, so keep your eyes peeled for a season review after the AGM and maybe a summer league review. See you all next season!

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