Owestry 1s vs Brookland Poyntons Ladies 3s

Saturday October 4 saw the Mighty Ducks make an hour and a quarter journey to the ancient market town of Oswestry for a close-fought match against experienced opposition who were particularly dangerous on the break.
Brooklands starting line-up had Luci in goal, four backs: Rhi, Amelia, Pam and Sophie; three mids: Holly, Nikki and Shandy; and three strikers: Issy, Becky and Katie. One super-sub for each tier, rotating Amy at the back, Keelin in the middle and Lucy up-front, ensured that Brooklands were able to stay on the pace, particularly as both temperature and tempo started to build. Shandy’s experience and pace created space, and a great feed from Rhi set up Nikki for a well-earned and well-taken first goal, but Oswestry came back, applying some fierce pressure down their right wing and forcing some great saves from Luci and a stretch too far from Shandy to keep the Ducks’ 1-0 advantage at the break.

Keelin did an amazing job of trying to make running repairs at the break, but the hamstring needed protecting so Shandy switched to master tactician and coach mode. Fuelled by Jaffa Cakes, Jelly Babies and Mamma Duck’s trademark inspirational team talk, Brooklands came out hard after the break, and Becky made a wonderful solo run from midfield, going round several players and finishing with a well-struck goal. Oswestry threatened constantly and forced some awesome saves from Luci, some cool off-the-line clearances from Amy and Sophie and some classic last-line-of-defence commitment from Pam, Amelia and Holly. Although the late afternoon sun didn’t make it easy, Amelia, Keelin, Nikki and Rhi did a great job of being everywhere. Up-front, Issy, Katie and Lucy, playing their first game for the Ducks, frustrated Oswestry by following Pam’s bellowed instructions to the letter: ‘Set the Press!’, ‘Chase EVERYTHING!’, ‘Don’t give ‘em an inch!’ Rhi was unlucky not to be rewarded for an awesome strike from the edge of the D, which practically left a ‘Back to the Future’ style flaming trail on the bobbly pitch! Oswestry never gave up and their pressure was rewarded with a late goal to give a final score of 2-1. Brooklands had given it everything and some sore bodies had to be extracted from the cars when the team finally made it back to Sale.