Result : Southgate 6 – 3 Chelmsford
Match Report : Emma McIntyre
Southgate got off to a raring start, piling the pressure on Chelmsford from the get-go with an opening goal from Jess Olorenshaw coming within the first two minutes of the game – something she was very pleased about given her views expressed about playing against her old club in the team talk before the game.
The dominant play continued from Southgate with some lovely give and go hockey, leading to a second goal for the Gate coming from some great team build-up play slotted home by captain Charlotte Childs inside ten minutes.
Southgate maintained the majority of the possession for the first quarter, with the long crashing balls from Chelmsford defence proving largely unsuccessful, but a breakaway attack from Chelmsford just before the end of Q1 left the score at 2-1 for quarter time.
Much of the same great play in the second quarter allowed Southgate to dominate once more, with a worldie of a goal fired into the roof of the net from Ella Sherring, and a now-routine short corner deflection secured by Lorna Cruickshank leaving the score at half time 4-1 to Southgate.
Chelmsford came out hard in the second half and converted a short corner with some help from the umpire, making the score 4-2. A (polite) discussion with said umpire from Emma McIntyre led to a little sit down and Southgate with 10 men for two minutes. Southgate continued some impressive play, leading to a second goal for Jess Olorenshaw, leaving the score at the end of Q3 as 5-2.
The final quarter provided some more excitement with a second rocket from Ella Sherring finding the roof of the net again (6-2), and multiple short corners allowing Southgate to keep the pressure piled on. Em Ruffell-Hazel found the backboard in the second phase of a corner but in an unlikely turn of events, a non-existent video referral system led to the goal being disallowed for Southgate – a third disallowed goal of the season so far for Em…
In the final moments of the game, following some more confusion, another breakaway goal for Chelmsford left the final score at 6-3 to the good lads. An excellent team performance, with yet another solid show from MoM Ellie Robinson, sees Southgate take 3 points to stay second in the table closely behind rivals Barnes.
A lovely 6 goals slotted home to add to the huge score lines seen from the rest of the teams in the Women’s side of the club this week – congrats all round to everyone who played on some fantastic results.