LATEST MATCH REPORT: LADIES 2ND XI

Ladies 2nds VS Guildford 25/11/06

A rather grey and windy day greeted the ladies as they prepared for one of the tougher matches of the season. GUildford are one position above us in the league so we knew we were in for a tough game.

First suprise of the day was that they were genuinely very pleasant. They had the courtesey to ask whether their socks clashed with ours - unlike Merton! They joined in some banter in the changing rooms and appeared overly 'nice'. Damn! How can you get focused on demolishing the oppo when they are that polite? Focus we did and into the first half we went with steely determination and fight.

Guildford are a very well organised attacking machine. They put our defence under pressure right away. For the first ten minutes we had the quiet irish lass from the north screaming instructions to Soph, Kirsty and Claire. Thankfully we figured that they were switching their forwards and went into zonal marking mode (yes even the twos know what that is!!).

A break from our forwards saw Ali and Ali whizz up the pitch working like demons and beating their defence to put away a cracking first goal. Superb effort. Guildford were not going to let this lie considering they had been dominating the game. They came straight back at Wanderers with a great goal from a long corner taking all the defence by suprise.

The following 20minutes saw us defend our little hearts out. We really struggled to move the ball past the halfway line due to a lack of team work on the 16s and sideline balls. However we somehow got another lucky break which saw the forwards take possession of the ball and charge up into the D and score for the second time.

Guildford came back at us again with a second goal and at half time it was 2-2. Strict pep talk from el capitane suggested we work the ball up the pitch with short, simple passes, forwards run round and mids make themselves available. the second half was ten times better and we held our own. The rain came in really really hard for the first ten minutes and the team started to look like drowned rats!

However Ali took advantage of this and charged off up the field and scored her hat trick - nice one!

Long corners and Wanderers do not go together. Guildford sent a ball flying across the D and Kirsty put her stick to it deflecting it neatly towards her own goal. Thankfully it went off the back line but it was a close moment.

Guildford kept the pressure up in the second half and came back with an equalizer to bring the score to 3-3. It was an awesome game, played in great spirit from both sides. Wanderers should be very proud of themselves and if we continue to play like this we have every chance of going higher in the league. we are now fourth which is very respectable!

MOM - Sophie

DOD - Jenny

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