Match Report by Kim-Bishop-Laggett

On Saturday, the W6s went to Mile End to play East London W8s. We travelled by tube and car arriving in good time and good spirits. On arriving at the pitch, we were faced with 16 players (including a goalkeeper) plus a coach.

However, when the odds are seemingly against us, we have the knack of somehow pulling out our finest performances. We were confident in our strong team, even though there was no obvious keeper, and so decided to play attacking, leave nothing on the pitch, hockey with 11 outfield players. And so we set about the task ahead of us. It was certainly hard work, we had most of the run of play in the first half, and East London were overrun. They panicked at our numbers going forward and we had some lovely linking play and peppered their goal with shots galore.

We had several short corners and some very near misses, including a rebound off the post and a beauty of a goal from Lily D’Souza early on was disallowed. But as we pushed ever forward, the risk of a breakaway goal increased and a momentary lapse in concentration at the back left an unmarked player to tap the ball into a very empty goal.

We rallied and kept the pressure on, we had many short corners to their few. And eventually we were rewarded with an equaliser courtesy of Didi. Laura summed it up when she said it was the hardest, she had ever worked for one goal.

Overall, it was a great team performance, everyone worked hard for each other and there were some lovely passages of play. Some super solid defending, including a goal line clearance by Andrea saw us come out with a well-deserved point. We were very unlucky not to take all three. We rounded it off with tea in the pub.

We continue to grow and improve and are coming together as a unit. Onwards and upwards to our home game this weekend.

MVP votes for Andrea and Laura but running away with it this week is Julie Bragg for another awesome performance. Well done!

It was also lovely to catchup with two ex-Southgate players now living and playing in East London – Laura Taylor, now playing outfield and Anna Curran.

And finally, good luck to Andrea at the Palace on Wednesday.