This Wednesday saw us travel along the coast to the East for a change to local rivals Bhasvic in the BCS league – a win would secure the league for us so victory was extremely important. We knew that they had some good players with 4 of them playing at regional level so we looked forward to a closely fought game.
With the 2nd team not in action, a squad of 11 was taken – with Emma Luke and Cassie Birch coming into the 1st team squad.
Shooting has not been our strong point of late so the starting line up was changed with Hannah Carey coming in at GA with Amber O’Brien GS, Laura Finlay at WA, Nicky Gatland at C, Briony Short at WD, Caitlin Kay GD and Mele Stubbs at GK.
With changes to the normally starting line up, a slow start was to be expected and there were no surprises there – unfortunately the passing generally was careless and shooting stats were not good. Defensively we were sound and ended the quarter 9 – 6 up. Georgia Williams came on at GA and Lizzie Northeast at WA and the movement was better, although the shooting was still not at the level required. The passing was still careless however again the defense were strong and we extended our lead, 19-10 at half time. Decided this time to change the defense to give Cassie a start at first team level and Hannah Carey at GD, by taking Briony and Caitlin off we lacked aggression in defence (Hannah and Cassie – a definite area to work on) although both players worked hard. We won the third quarter by 1 and went in 29-19.
With the shooting still not at the level required, it was time to bring on Emma Luke for her first start in the 1st team – not an easy thing to ask of anyone but Emma was up for it and Amber moved out to GA. Caitlin was brought back into defense with Briony taking over at centre from Nicky Gatland. It is amazing how long 15 mins is and how quickly a comfortable 10 goal lead can vanish. Bhasvics tails were up and we were soon only winning by 2. We could have cracked but fortunately the girls stood firm and the shots started going back in – with 1 minute left we had a 5 goal lead and the coach was able to relax.
An interesting day from the coaches point of view. Having spent this week working on timing and passing its back to the drawing board as this was clearly not successful.
Well done for holding your nerve girls.
This result does mean we have won the BCS League prior to playing Chi on 21.4.10
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