Women's 4s 2 - 3 London Wayfarers 3s (A)
By Beckie Middleton
Were we in Streatham for a game against London Wayfarers, or going on a team beach holiday? Looking at the pitch didn’t make the answer to this question any clearer.
Following another 'inspirational' 2.5 minute team talk, the gals walked out of the changing rooms to find Stacey milling about outside: “I’ve been here for ages, I couldn’t find anyone” - no thought of opening a door or asking on the group chat, but then again some of the worldy passes she played during the game suggest perhaps Stacey is in fact better off being late and spending some alone time visualising the game after all.
Not quite sure of the exact chronology, but it seems we went 1-0 up, 2-1 down and then got back on level terms by half time. Herbie popped up with two corner goals, although sadly her pathetic hat trick avoidance later in the game included a golden opportunity to equalise in the final few minutes. It has to be said that it’s noticeable that no one harps on about “Backstick Bex” when one of her reverse strikes actually goes in. You know who you are.
Other notable first half events were, in no particular order: Lara and Freya doing an elaborate two trappers/no strikers decoy on one of our penalty corners, Tegan successfully seeing Herbie’s eyebrow signals from 50 metres away and Charlotte subbing herself on for the first of two 90 second stints after 33.5 minutes had elapsed. Oh, and we established that marking in our own circle mayyyy be a work on area for us.
Scar marauded up and down the right hand side; Anna put the Wayfarers backline under pressure on her W4s debut; Issy, Becca and Freya played with composure far beyond their years; Sunny played with composure equal to her years and Maddie was heard to communicate out loud for the first time in a game this season (we genuinely love to see this Maddie, please do it again next week).
Half time arrived, we discussed the fact we were actually playing pretty well, ate some sweets and headed back onto the beach. Meanwhile on the W4 WhatsApp: Carole was sending braggy pics from a mountain in her Surby shirt, Bing was pretending she did a 6k run to make up for missing the game… and Lisa Clarke (full name only) didn’t provide any selfies so we can’t actually verify what craic she was having instead of playing.
Some things that happened in the second half: Stacey made an insane goal line save. Ava tried to slide out of her goal a few times but got stuck in a sand dune half a metre from her start point. Emily had some great carries and link ups, got taken out, and told the umpire in detail about the various elements of this decision he had got very wrong… and we still didn’t care about marking. Unfortunately this did mean Wayfarers scored a third goal and we couldn’t quite convert any more chances, including any more of the 47 penalty corners we had on the day.
A slightly disappointed team trudged off to empty the sand from their shoes and think about how best to spend our £50 teas-at-Wetherspoons budget. Our first dropped points after Christmas, but it’s always nice to have some winter sun.