A good, but rather frustrating game this week - primarily because we had the majority of the play, many attacks on goal and many attacking short corners but didn't come away with the win. So it goes sometimes.

All credit to the Basildon goalie who put in a great shift to stop a lot of our shots. We had no goalie so were always going to be vulnerable to break-away goals. We did manage to keep the ball out of our defending D for most of the game and I think we only had one or two short corners awarded against us. On the other hand Basildon had a very strong, fast centre forward and an even speedier youngster on the right wing, who were quick to exploit the very infrequent leaks in our defence.

We had a powerful start this week, which I think rather took Basildon by surprise. It resulted in a short corner within the first three minutes. Scarlet stepped up and employed one of her rocket shots - a cross between a powerful push and a low drag flick. The goalie did manage to get a foot to it but the force was such that the ball still managed to fumble its way over the goal line.

1-0 up and I thought we were in for a good win. Basildon did quickly rally however and exploited one of their chances to score in the 9th minute and again in the 25th from a short corner.

Their only other goal came early on in the second half. Having been out-manoeuvred as the last line of defence around the 25 yard line, it was a flat out race between me and their centre forward towards our open goal. Although I could keep level and got a little touch on the ball, I'm afraid having (probably) a 40+ year handicap and a still slightly dodgy knee meant I couldn't quite overtake and the younger model won out ;)

Although we lost we had some really nice play throughout the game, with everyone working really hard.
Newcomer (and newly turned 13) Phoebe put in such a spirited performance in midfield that she gained our MoM for the day. Very well deserved. She was also super brave in volunteering to take a penalty flick - awarded when a Basildon defender stopped a shot on the line and it rolled up into her body. The flick was well taken but sadly just clipped the post. Unlucky.

Also unlucky was a cracking shot from Rach - think in the second half - which just went wide of the left post. Two inches further in and the goalie would not have stood a chance.

A mention for Claire, who was guesting with us from the 3s, and played out of position up front, where I thought she showed a huge promise ;)

So, unlucky not to win this week, but lots of positives to take away.
Well played all.
Jane
PS Hopefully Priya will soon be recovered and back with us in goal.