This Saturday saw Brooklands ladies 4s take on Alderly Edge at the Armitage center. It was freshers weekend so we all set of in lots of time just incase we got stuck in all the traffic. The sun was out so we spent our spare time soaking it up on the steps and engaging in a team talk from Ruth
We had a solid defence with Kelly, Catherine, Rosie, Helen and Lucy C. A strong midfield with Issy, Ruby, Holly and Jess, and a powerful attack with Becky, Lucy LH, Kathryn and Hayley. Paula had her debut playing in goal.
This was a tough game against a strong Alderly Edge team. The first 20 minutes saw us get off to a static start with Alderly Edge beating us to the ball and their passing just outclassed us. Within the first 20 minutes our opponents took a 3 goal lead. However, Brooklands kept battling with some great defending by our back line. Paula in goal played a blinder keeping Alderly Edge from scoring more. As the first half drew to a close Brooklands had some good attacking spells and came close to scoring several times.
Ruby provided us all with energy gel or as Lucy C said the 'strangest liquid non alcoholic cocktail jelly slime' at half time. This did the trick as we came back in the second half like a different team. It was a real game of 2 halves. Everyone got behind the ball regardless of there position.
The visitors increased their lead 10 minutes into the second half making the score 4-0. As the sun was beating down on us and injuried showed their ugly faces, the presure grew for the team. Brooklands ladies started dropping like flies, Kathryn hurt her back, Becky got elbowed in the face and Hayley tweaked her quad. We weren’t disheartened though, Our skipper Lucy C played a blinder in every position Ruth put her in; a forward, midfielder and defender. We took the game to the visitors, and in the 69th minute Lucy LH scored a very snazzy reverse stick goal, to make the final score 4-1, but 1-1 for the second half.
Oppositions MOM was Lucy C, Lucy LH and Paula got our MOM and for a change, Lucy C got DOD.