Old Actonians WFC Res 9 – 1 Hillingdon Abbots LFC

Sunday 15th November 2009
Hillingdon Abbots

Mighty Reserves vs Hillingdon Abbots

Round 1 of the Jnr Middlesex Women’s Cup (or as Nat H put it “just how many cups are you lot in anyway?”)

Weather: After it bucketing it down for most of the weekend, nice and sunny with a small breeze. Pitch: A touch muddy, downhill first half, uphill second. Ref: Couldn’t see anyone smaller than him…

After many texts, calls and emails back and forth it transpired that not even hurricanes, tornadoes or apocalyptic disaster style events would stop this match going forwards. Therefore with much trepidation the mighty (12) reserves stepped into the depths of leafy Hillingdon to face up against a team we knew very little about.

We lined up as follows:

            Eilis

Amy Marian Preeti Jodie

Polly Nat R Kat Harriet

    MV  Lindsay

Sub: Dani

We started very brightly indeed (and downhill), and either Hillingdon still thought they were still asleep and the match wasn’t being played, or we stunned them with our amazing sharp passing and movement. After 5 mins we opened up our scoring, Linds taking a through ball from MV and placing it past the keeper. A great opener that we'd worked hard for.

3 minutes after that Kat decided she was going to score. She worked the ball clear from a couple of defenders, played a pass off MV and placed the ball up high and right, past the keeper. 2-0. Abbots coach had a few words to say as this was less than 10 minutes gone.

we settled in at this point, the back line setting out some chairs and watching the game. Preeti ventured up towards the opposing goal and came back from time to swap with Amy or Jodie. Marian and Eilis counted blades of grass to keep sharp.

We won one of many corners in the match. Linds sent in a lovely cross that was cleared in a scramble. Kat had her back to goal and swiveled, shot and sent in our 3rd, her second. The keeper stood no chance (© football cliches).

At this point they finally started to wake up. The backline had a number of long balls to deal with, which we did with no problems. Eventually their number 10 (very small, fell over lots and spent most of her time on the ground) broke through and forced Eilis into a smart stop which we cleared away and broke from. We continued to press down the wings, Polly making a number of runs and turning crosses in. Their defence was holding, just, but we knew more goals were coming.

And then number 4 popped up. Harriet sent Linds clear down the left, and Linds crossed the ball. the defence were so busy marking MV and Nat in the box that they utterly failed to notice Polly (cunningly disguised as an tree, she was waiting in the box for ages) at the back post. She controlled the ball and fired it past their keeper for our 4th. And just when they thought it couldn’t get any worse, Kat was given a lovely ball from Linds that she fired in for our 5th and her hattrick.

We'd now played about 40 mins, scored 5 and conceded none. Jodie went on a searching run down the left, played a nice one two with Nat and won us a corner. The defence played rock/paper/scissors and Amy won and headed off for the corner. She returned having scored a lovely chipped volley for our 6th!

And then halftime arrived. We decided to swap Dani for MV aafter 5 mins as we knew Abbots would come out a changed team at half time.

We were right.

It would seem that they’re a downhill slope team…that was the only change made by both teams. they came flying out of the blocks while we struggled initially to cope with what was a whole new game going uphill and into the sun. We held firm and their small number 10 fell over Marian’s feet and was promptly awarded a free kick by the ref. “She clipped MY ankles!” came the outraged cry from our captain, and no-one could argue with that as Marian both had her back to her and had the ball at her feet. But we lined up, and in that moment switched off enough for them to get in and loop a header over and in for a goal. The backline were most annoyed.

This galvanized us further, Linds taking the ball through Lindsay having a number of shots and Dani muscling their defenders looking to get that final ball into the box. Eventually Linds had a one on one and placed the ball past the keeper, giving us the goal we needed to lift us back on top this second half.

And when it rains, it pours (for them at least). Harriet took a through ball from Linds and slotted it low and to the keeper’s right for our 8th goal, and her first for the Mighty Reserves.

Hillingdon really tried to force us back into a few more errors. The sun was also now so low in the sky it was impossible to see anything, and the communication of the backline was really key, shouting to each other who it was actually coming towards the others. At one point Eilis was faced with 3 people all charging goalwards and she had no idea who they were, but like Superman Amy swooped out of nowhere (ok, right back) and cleared the ball away for a throw. We pushed Preeti up into CM and this gave us just what we needed as Linds rounded off a great Acton performance with our final goal, a clinical finish from a scrambled clearance for 9-1 and a game we never thought we'd actually be playing yesterday…

PPoM: Lindsay MPoM: Kat

Interesting things of the match The match sheet. Usually so simple took two of us to figure out, 3 of us to remember the score and the times scored in minutes (kid you not) and a month to fill out. Kat saying “Does this make me top scorer now?” after the match. We’ll have to wait for the end of the season for that one… We never knew Marian could get THAT excited about Rugby. “COME ON!!!!!” Randy’s impression of herself on the phone at about 10:30 on Saturday night Harriet’s attempt at an early coronary via a packet of pork scratchings and a beer or two. A number of the team learning how to spell my name. You shall remain anonymous for now! The changing room resembled a stable.
The toilets did, in fact, have a light switch, but it was best not to be turned on (we heard one of us gagging at the sight). Ahhh grassroots football…