4th December Match Reports

GMHA Team Match Report

REDDISH ATTACKS UNABLE TO BREAK THROUGH

After most of the girls paid a visit to Andréa’s house cooling party the night before, it would be fair to say that the a few missed passes and a few missed hits would be perfectly acceptable (only on this one occasion let it be noted!). The game started with Saddleworth being the more dominant of the two teams and making their way through the reddish defence very easily. They took the lead very early in the first half before reddish had the chance to get out of their half. When Reddish looked to attack, the forward play looked exceptional with sleek passing and confident runs from the wing player Natalie and good strong tackles from Charlie making Saddleworth be on the back foot for a majority of the first half.

Strong Reddish attacks continued with lots of play down the middle of the pitch, with lots of through passes confusing the Saddleworth defence. Counterattacking was the only way Saddleworth would make it through the reddish forwards and into the Reddish defence and they soon added to their goal tally with a shot into the bottom corner. With the score at two nil, it looked as though it was going to be a bit of a crushing for Reddish. This wasn’t helped when Saddleworth further increased their lead to three goals after a through ball split the reddish defence and Sarah Wantling was beaten at the near post by a fiercely struck shot. Despite the dive she could do nothing to stop Saddleworth increasing their goals. And they got another goal to take a four nil lead into half time.

However, Reddish heads stayed up and after a reassuring half time talk, a different Reddish team came out for the second half. It was as if the first half was just a warm up and it was all Reddish, Reddish, Reddish. Attack followed attack and Saddleworth appeared to be shocked at the amount of defending they had to do. Everybody increased their first half work rate with every Reddish player wanting the ball. Tackles were flying in everywhere and Reddish were winning a majority of them. The pitch as so open, the play continued down the middle of the park. The attacks into the circle lead to a number of goal line scrambles and when the ball was spread wide, excellent link up play between Lucy and Natalie on the right and Helen and Jenny on the left meant the attacks were flying in from all angles.

The reward for all the Reddish effort finally came when a shot from Charlie was saved by the keeper and Dunners followed up the rebound, sliding it through the keepers legs to get one back for Reddish. making up for her disallowed goal the previous day. Reddish kept attacking and running down all channels of the pitch. Despite a few Saddleworth corners in the middle of the half, jab tackles from Helen Higgs and strong tackles from all defenders kept the Saddleworth attackers at bay and enabling Reddish to continue did what they did all second half and attack! Late pressure from Reddish meant Saddleworth conceded a number of penalty corners and numerous long corners but Reddish were unable to capitalise and shots on goal were well defended by Saddleworth.

Despite a losing final score of four goals to one, Reddish finished the match the stronger of the two sides and won the second half one nil. Well played girls, especially the second half. Let’s hope the team can take the second half performance into the rest of the season.

Rachel Dunley