The U11s have enjoyed a reasonable start to Hockey this term, drawing both of their matches away at Lyndhurst and Belmont Grosvenor, but had yet to secure their first win of 2012. A trip to Saint John's asto against The Minster was not going to prove an easy task so when the opposition arrived a little late we took full advantage of the extra time we were afforded to practise, practise, practise. Lily got dressed into her goal keeping kit and the girls carried out a series of drills passing the ball and taking shots at goal. Sophie and Clemmie worked together in defence and the others had to work hard to pass the ball around them to try and score. It was a rather chilly afternoon but by the time Minster arrived the U11s were well warmed up and eager to play.
The first half was a little scrappy as Terrington reverted to chasing the ball instead of staying in formation and passing the ball wide to the wings. Free hits and sideline passes only found the opposition as the attacking players chose to stand behind the Minster girls and as a team our girls failed to move the ball into spaces and around their opponents. There was little breadth this half but when the girls did manage to find one another they ran well with the ball and Minsters goal came increasingly under threat although it was difficult to manoeuvre the ball into such a small D. Minster's passes were much better than ours so they moved across the pitch much quicker than we did and Lily had to make a number of good saves to keep us in the game. Most of the ball was fought for in the midfield during this half but a break in the closing minutes saw Nicole run well with the ball down the wing and a shot from the edge of the D rebounded off the goally to take us into the lead.
At half time we were narrowly ahead but had not demonstrated our true capabilities and it took a substitution to really wake our girls up. Tara came on and created spaces forcing the other girls to do the same. Olivia was much improved in this half and Erin did a superb job in midfield and the game flowed much better. The Minster girls fell fowl to the mounting pressure and Lily never saw the ball in her D in the second half. Clemmie moved into a sweeping position behind Erin and we used the wings to our advatage this half. Some lovely passing between the forwards created a lot more chances and Olivia and Tara both managed to get themselves on the score sheet. The game really did prove to be one of two halfs and the U11s produced a performance worthy of their 4 - 0 win.
Mary-Ann Pilmore
