A Tiring Weekend

The final hockey weekend of the year was going to be a killer, match Saturday, Christmas party then match Sunday. Rough.

Our first match was against Thirsk, we had 13 ready to play, which was great, although we somehow managed to have 13 players made up of forwards and right mids, so the defence and the left we’re looking a bit sparse.

We knew we’d done well against Thirsk at the beginning of the season, so we were confident. We also knew that we needed to score a lot, because we had fewer defenders than normal.

The game started and it was clear that Thirsk have bolstered their team with some strength since September. We were making some good attacks down the right and getting some chances on goal. Our natural team structure meant we were playing quite high up the field. This came back to bite us when Thirsk were able to make a break and their strong centre forward had a clear fast shot on goal. 1-0 to Thirsk, this was not working out to plan.

Not to be disheartened, we were straight back on the attack. Using our great passing and moving to drive the ball up the field. It was Kim who got in on the attack first scoring her first GOAL of the day 1-1. We were back in the game.

We kept up the pace and soon we were scoring again, this GOAL came from [someone?? Gail? Ash?] 2-1 to Batley!

This was more like it, but we needed more, Thirsk were good on the break and we needed to keep ahead. Our third chance came when we had an attack on goal, Newby hit the ball in from the edge of the D and straight into the bottom corner, GOAL! 3-1. (It was as awesome as it sounds).

At halftime, we were 3-1 up.

In the second half, we were taken by surprise again by Thirsk, who broke through our defence, allowing their strong forward another unstoppable shot on goal. 3-2.

Thirsk quickly had another shot on goal, which ended up in a scramble in front of the goal that was difficult to work out. The ball did end up in our net, however, it transpired that a Thirsk player had been sat on the ball at one point, meaning our defenders couldn’t clear it, so the goal was disallowed and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Our fourth GOAL came soon after scored by Kim, 4-2 to Batley! This was soon followed by a 5th GOAL scored by Jo who got in a shot in front of goal. 5-2!

Just before the final whistle went, we once again found ourselves at the mercy of Thirsk’s centre forward. She had a standoff with Helen, who had to stand firm to limit her options on goal. Her flick over Helen was knocked over the crossbar by Newby, keeping Thirsk on 2 and stopping her getting a hattrick. *Happy dance*

The game ended 5-2 and MOM went to Newby for the awesome goal and save (incase you were in any doubt, Newby writes this).

Then we had our Christmas night out, there was curry, too much beer and dancing late into the night. Kim made a friend in Legends and then did some random 3am cleaning at Vickys. I’m not really sure what was going on. It was great fun as always.

Batley Christmas Do

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Sunday’s match was a struggle. Adel told us that they’d also been on a night out the night before, however, half their team was under 18, so they were significantly less affected by the boozing than we were.

Stiff muscles and beer bowels were not a good start to the match. I’ll be honest, by the end of the game I could barely even remember my own name, so my memory is a bit hazy.

We made it to half time with a 0-0 scoreline, so we were hopeful that we might be able to get something from this game. We had some chances on goal, but hadn’t managed to capitalise on them. Mel was running the back line with fresh legs and keeping the rest of us in check.

However, the tiredness got to us all in the second half, and we soon went a goal down. Before we knew it, it was 3-0, they scored mostly from short corners I think, I don’t really remember.

This was how the game ended, MOM went to Mel. We finished the year 4th in the table, a great first half of the season!

We’re not back now until Jan 14th. Have a lovely Christmas and New Year everyone, try not to get too unfit while we’re off! Haha!