Brooklands Ladies 3s V Warrington 1s

Match Report - Brooklands -v- Warrington - Saturday 26th September

Well the sun was shining in South Manchester as the Mighty Ducks headed to the Firs for their home fixture -v- Warrington Ladies 1s....unfortunately, the team should have been meeting & warming up at Brooklands! After a quick turn round and a regroup (and profuse apologies offered to the Mens 2s whose match was now delayed) the team warmed up (very quickly) on the Brooklands pitch! Susan Pritchard returned from her journey to the Firs and took up position on the sidelines as team Manager, aided by Lou Barber (aka chief photographer for the day) and the bearer of fabulus new Duckie shirts!
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The game started well with good attacking play from the Brooklands forwards with Ellie Cronin trying for a sneaky goal. Warrington decided that the game was a little too one sided for them and retaliated with some pressure being put on the Brooklands defence leading to cracking saves from Luci aided by the defence and midfield having to cover some ground. Brooklands battled on to score the elusive goal and rolled the subs on and off in the heat to keep the pressure on the Warrington defence. A cracking short corner nearly resulted in a goal for Emilie Chandler followed by Warrington quickly trying to capitalise on a short corner, but the shot went wide. Holly Dixon battled on within the first half in the heat despite still recovering from recent illness; she was put to rest for the 2nd half...but well done Holly for giving it your all, despites shouts from Mum saying one of your passes was 'shite' albeit some great passing you delivered!

At half time the score remained nil, nil. Half time was short and sweet in the sun due to time constraints on the pitch availability! (not wishing to mention again Pamela Dixon but we went to the wrong pitch....)

Warrington started the second half with a swift attack on goal and another great save by Luci. Brooklands were unlucky not to get a goal with a great short corner attempt by Shandy. Brooklands continued to defend well with Jonesy and Amy working well on the right. Warrington had a further two short corner opportunities but great defending by Brooklands meant they failed to capitalise on the opportunities, even with a save on the line from our Captain, PD kept Brooklands in the game!

Maz turned up from her sick bed to offer her support and cheer (heckle) the team on...supported by Pam's motivational on pitch chant of "don't just stand there"....followed by a great tackle by the lady herself.

The pressure finally paid off with Helen (a returner to Brooklands and a Back to Hockey recruit) putting one past the Warrington goalie!
Brooklands kept the pressure up to try and make it two but despite huge pressure on the Warrington defence they failed to get that second goal.

A hard fought win was in the bag....and Pam was a happy Pam! The last time the team had played this oppo, they got thrashed 14 nil...A great match and great team work...

Warrington's man of the match was Nikki Hussey.

Our man of the match (or duck of the day) had 3 players all on level pegging, Katie Cuttle, Jonesy, and Amy Patterson....a final last minute vote resulted in Jonesy getting Man of the Match. Well done.

Our Dick of the Day....well what can we say....yet again, and overwhelmingly it was Pamela Dixon...who did concede that this week she definitely did deserve it....she thought it was due to the match venue error, but most comments centred on the "play to the whistle" shouts down the pitch...particularly when the whistle had already been blown!.
Ellie Cronin did get a token vote for forgetting her kit.

The win placed Brooklands 4th in the League and feeling confident ready for their away fixture in Oswestry on the 3rd October. Bring it on...the Mighty Ducks are ready....