Date: 21/10/2007
Game: Kent Magpies Reserves v BAWFC Reserves
Author: Jo
Players of the match: Lilian & Hibo

Memories of the previous season's traumatic trip to Kent Magpies were still in the minds of those of us who played in that game as we made out way to this season's match on a lovely, sunny Sunday. However, a very sociable trip on the train from Waterloo East put us (well, the 6 of us on the train) in a positive frame of mind and made us determined to put up a better show this time round. We have now picked the official song for the reserve team - "The Only Way Is Up!" (those of us old enough to remember the 80s well might recall this one).

After several dropouts and a very exhausting and stressful Friday for Nav, Petra, Preeti and myself, we'd actually managed to get a reserve team of 11 players out and 13 for the first team - many thanks to Ailsa, Gilly, Mandip, Nadia and Hibo who re-arranged prior commitments/stepped in at the last minute to help us out, and to Petra for spending 2 hours on the phone on Friday evening trying to get enough players to field 2 teams. Reminder here - please let us know by Wednesday if you can't make it as you might think it is just you and it won't make a difference but there are usually 3 or 4 other players thinking the same thing, which gives those of us trying to organise things a real headache!! Rant over.

Back to the game. We started off with Geesje making her debut in goal, with Lilian, Bel, Carolyn and Jo in front of her in defence, Jay, Cherelle, Nadia and Petra in midfield, and Karen and Hibo up front.

We got off to a shaky start when their first attack down their right wing resulted in their first goal (totally my fault, apologies). We were still adjusting as a team but gradually settled in and actually spent quite a bit of time in the opposition half. We managed some good attacking play and won a couple corners and Karen and Hibo did a great job of hassling their defence.

Geesje was learning quickly as she went along and made some great saves, helped in her efforts by some great defending by Carolyn and Bel, plus some fantastic play on the right by Lilian (was it really only her 3rd game ever?!). The goal backed on to a wooded area with a ditch, into which Geesje would occasionally disappear when looking for the ball after it had flown over the top of the goal.

The midfield were also doing well and Jay and Petra were tireless down the wings, and Nadia and Cherelle battled well in centre-mid. We had a worrying moment 10 mins from half-time when Jay went down with a knee injury. However, some magic spray and a massage from the opposition's coach seemed to do the trick and she was up and about...... although she did seem to be enjoying the 'treatment' as the massage seemed to go on forever!!

Anyway, we ended the first half 7-0 down but we could take quite a few positives from the way we played and everyone was quite upbeat. As Roger pointed out, this is still a learning experience for a lot of us and playing with more or less 11 different players every week means we usually take a half to settle down

Roger gave us a few pointers at half-time and made a few changes - Nadia moved up to centre-forward and Hibo dropped back to centre-mid. As expected, the 2nd half started much better than the first and we scored our first goal of the season!!! Carolyn put a lovely ball through the middle to Hibo who then went one-on-one with the keeper and calmly slotted it past her. 5 minutes of celebrations ensued before the oppostion could kick-off again!!

We had some more good play up front and were unfortunate not to score a second goal when we spent about 5 mins in their box with everyone making at least one attempt on goal but unfortunately their defence managed to stop every single one of these.

Back down the other end Geesje had settled well into her role in goal and made some excellent saves and stopped quite a few one-on-one situations as well as making a lovely punching save when one of their corners came into the box. Lilian was fantastic at right back and I think we would all agree that she has now made the position hers, as she stopped many of their attacks down that wing and even managed to stop 2 of their players on her own!!

Unlike us, the opposition had subs and brought on 3 new players soon after we scored our goal. The fresh legs (and the fact that they were a head taller and about 20 years younger than most of our back 4) made a difference and we ended up conceding 4 more goals. The final score of 11-1 wasn't an accurate reflection of the game. Although they deserved the victory, we played a much better game than the scoreline suggests and I for one am looking forward to playing them again in January.

The train journey back was a cheerful one as we were happy with our performance as a team and by the fact that Karen provided home-made brownies and cups of tea from her flask. Petra seemed surprised that the flask had actually kept the tea hot for several hours - perhaps having one her 'blonde moments'?

All in all a very positive end to a game that we didn't even think we were going to be able play.