Date: 17/09/2006
Game: Kent Magpie Reserves v BAWFC Reserves
Author: Jo Santa Maria
Player of the match: Julia Dann

It was the first ever game for the BAWFC reserves. Actually, it was the first ever game ever for nearly all our players - including a couple who had never really played football before today! Many thanks to Anita and Geesje for helping us out so we had more than 7 players.

We trekked all the way across London to get to the Kent Magpies ground. Only 2.5 hours for most of us but Annita and Julia got to spend a whole 3.5 hours trying to make their way across from Bedfont!

We knew it was going to be a tough game from the start with only 9 of us (did I mention that most of us had never played a game before?!) and 11 of them (the average age of their team was about half of ours!). Still, we were out there to have fun and knew that the game was going to be a learning experience.

We got off to a slow start as we tried to figure out where we were supposed to be position-wise and what we were supposed to be doing. We found out that is quite hard to close players down when the opposition have 2 extra players running around!! After a bit of confusion at the start we eventually settled in a bit and actually got into the opposition's half, and even managed to string a few passes together - quite an achievement given that we were 2 players down (did I mention that before?). Anyway, this season is meant to be a learning experience for us, and although it was a tough game, morale stayed high and we enjoyed the game....... in a masochistic sort of way.

Lee, Vicky, Bin and Geesje ran their socks off in midfield and they managed to get into the Magpies half several times, and even got as far as their keeper on occassions. Karen, Annita, Anita and Jo battled away at the back getting some good tackles in. Julia was kept extremely busy in goal and managed to pull off some fantastic saves, and had quite a few chances to practise her goal kicks - they were pretty good for someone who has never done them before and we're not letting you escape now that we've seen what you can do! By the end of the game, we'd all had a good run-around and learnt quite a lot.

As our first game ever, there were a lot more positives to take away from the game than the scoreline might suggest. We played much better as a team in the 2nd half and we never let our heads go down. We enjoyed the game and everyone kept really positive, encouraging each other whenever we could. It can't have been that bad as Geesje and Anita have said they'll come back for more!! Hopefully we'll have 11 players for the next game.....