Thrilling draw

In what was undoubtedly the Ladies 1s best performance of the season two Caity Wales goals pegged back high flying Harleston Magpies to achieve a great 2-2 draw roared on by a full balcony. The Ladies produced free flowing, structured , passing hockey to out play Harleston for large patches of the match. Down 1-0 through a short corner a stunning equaliser came just before half time courtesy of quick thinking by Milly intercepting an aerial. The ball was passed on to Alex who rifled a ball into the D where Caity deflected the ball into the top left hand corner. The first fifteen  minutes of the second half was constant pressure from Harleston with Alice (GK) making fantastic saves. Eventually the pressure paid off as Harleston scored from another short corner. Earlier in the season this would have led to  a collapse but this time the Ladies got stronger and stronger and thoroughly deserved their equaliser again through Caity Wales. In the last five minutes Southgate looked the more likely winners. Great use of subs with all 16 players making valuable contributions. This really was a team effort and makes the team ready to face the two best teams in the league over the next two weekends with confidence.

Caity Wales managed to be both MOM and DOD – talk of hogging the limelight!!

The Ladies 2s had a narrow 2-1 loss to high flying Witney

The ladies 3s had a tough early morning game away at Ashford, resulting in a disappointing 7-2 loss. The first half wasn’t their finest, with both teams all over the place. Southgate stepped up their game in the second showing off some much better hockey, but Ashford’s lead was too great. Caitlin scored both goals – a beautiful first lifting it over the keeper, and a stylish second tipping it into top corner from Carolines bullet of a strike during a short. For these Caitlin was awarded MoM, with Caroline close behind for commanding the game in the second half.

The ladies 3s put in a far better performance for their second game of the weekend away vs Eastcote. Despite this, they went down 2-0 in the first half. In the second Caitlin again scored a wonderful goal lifted into the top of the net, and Southgate had some further close chances nearly equalising the score. However, after one lucky goal from Eastcote it was too much for Southgate to come back from and the score ended at 4-1. Millie was awarded MoM for her great distribution out of position in CM, and was closely followed by Lucy who gave a strong performance in defence.

Ladies 4s dug in and put into practice lessons learned at training this week. It clearly worked as our passing game, exquisite ball control and clinical finishing brought us 3 second half goals with no reply away v Staines 3s. Emily Wilder opened the scoring while Leona Robinson bagged a brace. Our Woman of the Week was stalwart sweeper Jo Berndes who had a stunning game not just defending, but bursting into attack and even setting up our first score. Well played!

Ladies 5s drew against Winchmore & Enfield 2s after playing some great come-back hockey to pull the game round from 1-0 down at half time to 2-1 ahead going into the dying minutes of the match, courtesy of two great goals from Mach Scott. Unfortunately, hearts were broken when a penalty corner was converted in almost the last play of the game to end the match 2-2.
The 5s had a bit of game-play amnesia, having forgotten some of the great passing moves of recent, more successful fixtures. They were also struck down by the sand-pitch bogeyman who drains the energy out of the atmosphere and slows the game down – does anyone else find this happens (#urbanmyth)???
Anyway, it’s not all doom and gloom: a point means we hang on to 4th place and with just a handful of games left everything matters now to how high we finish. Congratulations to MOMs sharing the honours this week – Matty Reynolds and Annette Woodrow.