Abingdon Hockey Club

Ladies 1s tough battle against Milton Keynes

The ladies1s had a tough match this week against Milton Keynes 3s. Both sides came out raring to go,
promising the start of a close match. Milton Keynes began the assault, crossing the ball quickly from one side
of the pitch to another. Our defence responded with some crunching tackles from Kirsty and superb clears by
Sinead, which opened up the pitch allowing us to really attack their defence. Some excellent runs followed in
the midfield by Paula, Lou and I, which saw Abingdon race towards Milton Keynes D and with some quickly
taken free hits their defence were soon under enormous pressure. Sadly we failed to get the ball in the back of
the net and were soon defending again.

Despite Milton Keynes being awarded a generous amount of free hits, Abingdon’s defence remained strong
and kept them out of our D. However in the last few minutes of the first half Milton Keynes were awarded two
short corners in quick succession. Our defence rushed out of the goal with Louisa leading the charge, even those
behind the half way line were sprinting back to help and eventually we drove them out of our D, leaving the
score at 0-0 at half time.

The start of the second half saw the intensity of the match heighten with amazing tackles being made by Louisa
in midfield causing loads of turnover balls. Still Milton Keynes wouldn’t back down and continued to put
pressure on us. The drama continued when a high ball hit Jen in the knee leaving us a player down momentarily
and before we knew where we were a brief lack of concentration resulted in Milton Keynes scoring 2 goals.
Nevertheless we fought back and with a few fast breaks their backs were quickly under increasing pressure and
finally we were awarded a long deserved short corner. Unfortunately we missed and the final whistle blew, the
score was 2-0 but we were rewarded by a really nice match tea of sausages and chips

Everyone should be really proud of how we played this weekend as we all tried our best and kept fighting
right up until the final whistle went. I would like to give a special mention to Hannah R who did some lovely
moves down the right wing in her first time playing for the 1s and to Shani for sticking with their number 4 and
denying her any ball time in the second half.

Man of the MAtch - Claire Fabes