Week 4 and with much work behind the sceneswe took to the pitch with a full squad and a unified determination to get some points on the board. Our local rivals have sometimes provided a banana skin  but no such problems this time with Jos carrying on from where she left off last week and scoring within two minutes of the PB.  We had the greater share of the play during the first 20 minutes.  Winchmore are known for their hard hitting and dogged defence but we were able to absorb the pressure and create counter attacks.  There was some feisty battling in the midfield but 25 minutes in , one of the best moves of the game caught Winchmore on the hop and produced our second goal.  A slick hit from the back led to  Bhu laying off a well- weighted pass to Izzy who showed  great composure in despatching the ball to the back of the net.

 The second half saw the oppo play with a higher intensity requiring some astute and nifty marshalling from Kim and Braggy in clearing our lines.  WHE squandered a number of opportunities by over-hitting into the D and Lucy W was able to show her experience and composure in allowing the balls to run through.  We weathered the storm and, despite some tired legs, we gained the initiative with Olive coming back from her customary target position to facilitate the forward movement.  A hard strike down the left wing saw Izzy make a great run to the top left corner but just fail to connect.  Olive and Jo began to combine well and an interception in the midfield enabled a pass to the former resulting in a PC.  A strike from the top of the D was cleared by their keeper but only to Jo’ s stick, a moment of hesitancy saw the ball cleared but our dander was up as we sensed the possibility of a third goal.  With Andrea pushing up in support we eventually made the breakthrough with Olive using her stick work to deny the defender and position herself to reverse stick sweep with force into the top of the net.  With around 10 minutes to go the game was effectively over and we were able to shut up shop to ensure our first clean sheet of the season.  Yay! 

A big shout out to all the players returning from injury and to those playing in unfamiliar positions.  This was a great team effort with everyone giving 110 %.  There were plenty of good individual performances but our WOW deservedly goes to Braggy for consistent defending and strong forward runs.Next up Eastcote away – it doesn’t get any easier – but we’ll hope to take the positives from this game and aim to  build on it going forward.