Women’s DP2 – Sunday July 21, 2002
V South West United
Score: 1-1
Four players were away for this game and we had six players backing up from the DP1 match before ours… and I thought that would be the worst of it! In addition, our warm-up was virtually non-existent and we hardly seemed interested in hockey. From the hit-off, South West United ran the ball upfield, beating our players with simple 2-on-1 moves and scored within the first 30 seconds. Usually after conceding a goal we are stunned into action, but today was different. To compound our terrible start, we were still very flat and disorganised, our marking wasn’t tight enough, we didn’t communicate well, and we were turning over possession by insisting on playing up the middle of the field. We had some chances from penalty corners, but it just wasn’t happening for us – it seemed the luck was with South West as they were granted some dubious penalties. At this point the coach had to leave to play his own game and his Dad took control of what seemed like a sinking ship.
Numerous key positional changes were made for the second half in an attempt to jolt the team into action, with Tonya going to the wing in an attempt to spread the ball wide for our attacks, rather than playing up the middle. This was a success with the likes of Jess (who came on as a substitute and was one of our best) and Susie benefiting from Tonya’s good passing. We kept possession of the ball better in the second half and improved on our first half effort. Tonya scored the equaliser from a penalty corner. South West United didn’t have too many more chances to score, but we couldn’t make the best of our chances as we had done so convincingly in previous weeks. Tonya and Becca couldn’t convert further chances to win, but that seemed to be the pattern of the afternoon from the outset so a draw was probably a fair result.
Fatigue had a telling effect on the side with virtually all players taking part in their third or fourth game of the weekend. But more relevant was the fact that I believe we underestimated our opposition, who had climbed to the middle of the competition ladder since we downed them easily last meeting. Much was riding on this game – a win would have sewen up the minor premiership for us, and our chances of going through the season undefeated could have been dashed. We have a great opportunity to achieve this amazing feat – how many players have been part of such a milestone? Hopefully we will be revitalised for our next match which will be the biggest game of the year so far. We play Kedron-Wavell, currently the form team of the division. Having spent most of the season on the fringes of the top four, they now sit in second after being undefeated in their last 8 matches (winning 6 of these).
Goal: Tonya Collins
Lee Oliver and Becca Pipers
copyright 2002 Lee Oliver