When your opponent turns up in navy blue and yellow socks and a blue and yellow netball dress, you know an awkward conversation has to be had, Sonning colours for a non Sonning team. With bibs at the ready, the game was on, Sonning v Wychwood Badgers 1's, here we come.
The game started off at a fast pace, Sonning dominating and taking full advantage of its strong line up. Pressure, simple passes and great team work resulted in a very quick first goal. The cheers echoed across the Sonning pitch and we knew this would be a great game. Learning from our last game, we knew we had to remain focussed, not let the goal go to our heads.
We continued to place pressure on the badgers, but on a quick break, the badgers were on the attack, passing the ball in to the D, a strong hit that bounced off our goalies foot, 1-1.
We went to half time and had Jules on the side line, coaching us. We had three jobs;
1. Get someone on the baseline
2. Push our defence in to the attacking half
3. Score another goal
With a quick huddle, sticks in, the captain asked if the team wanted the win, yes we did.
Second half whistle blew and Sonning dominated the badgers for the entire half. Our press was amazing, the badgers had no where to go. With a number of short corners won, our tactics were working. Finally, we converted a short corner in a goal, our first of the season. Lisa Meadows injected beautifully, Sarah Campbell-Atkins received the ball and took an almighty hit, Ellie Aries touched the ball with the tip of her stick and boom......2-1 to Sonning.
Badgers were not happy, so we took full advantage and continued to place pressure on them, not allowing them anywhere near our goal.
The final whistle blew, we won......again! Everyone worked exceptionally hard and we thanked our side line coach Jules for giving us a new focus in the second half.
Two beautiful goals from Ellie Aries again today, she is now our teams top goal scorer.
Woman of the match, Sarah again!
Muff of the match; Amy Shaw for a shocking pass that missed Louise and headed straight towards an own goal, thankfully it was outside the D. Great effort Amy :-)