A cold but sunny day at Kent College, a welcome relief from last week's gales!

Team 1:
We had a very different line up and mix in the two teams due to this being a Saturday friendly fixture, so the girls took a little while to get going and play as a team. Team 1 had a fairly slow first half due to this, but started to find each other and upped their determination. A few changes in player's positions and we started to really improve. Credit to the KC side for some very tight marking of our forwards, which made it hard to play our usual game.

Our focus in the second half was to try and avoid unnecessary mistakes and unforced errors (too many feet getting in the way as an example) and to try and get away from the tight KC marking.

This was certainly achieved and within the first few minutes, a wonderful Charley pass made it to Anjalie who was able to get away from her player and ended up one on one with the goalkeeper to smash it in the top left hand corner. This seemed to settle the team and they came out for more! Our second goal came from persistence from Charley in front of goal; credit to her as she hurt her leg in the goal scoring process! (luckily she played on)

Goal number 3 came from some beautiful play right from the back through to Daisy who was able to pass to Mia who finished with a strong slap and Anjalie was able to slot in the 4th and final goal of the match after, again, some excellent play all the way from the back.

An absolute special mention to these 3 players:
Emilie had an outstanding game in Goal and made an incredible save to prevent KC from equalising at 1-0.
Lottie Hinton made her debut for the team as a defender and what a debut it was; amazing tackling and distribution and kept her cool throughout, having to battle some great KC girls stick skills.
Our player of the match deservedly went to Betsie, slotting into our defence and making some tremendous runs up the right wing, contributing to at least 2 goals.

I was incredibly pleased with how the girls adapted to new positions and how new players simply looked the part; a very well done indeed!

Team 2:
Excellent team play from the outset despite having some new faces.
They used the space on the pitch really well; starting from the back; with both Pippa and Eva playing a great game with some good clearances and tackles.

Darcy held the midfield well and used some lovely skills. Erin (well deserving player of the match) made some great runs up the wing and was rewarded with a goal. Erin M made a great debut as new team member and scored her first goal. Sophie showed great tenacity and didn't give up chasing the ball. Overall, the team forced a number of penalty corners and were kept out by experienced goalkeeping, some great saves made. (The last goal was an own goal; but after some great pressure from TW)

Again wonderful to see how the girls adapt in new positions and with new players, and continue to use the simple basic principles of hockey that we drill in every week! Great work girls,

Jen and Emma