Bastille Day

‘Winning means you’re willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else’

The U14 Girls played their final fixture of the England Hockey Cup at home against a strong Bishops Stortford side. This time the weather was glorious, if not just a little bit too warm.

After a short warm up and team talk with Alex Bibby (standing in for Jet who was away in Bristol) and Matt Hyndman the girls began their campaign to finish this seasons England Hockey Cup unbeaten.

It was not long before the girls settled and started passing the ball nicely around the pitch. There were some great drives forward by Josie and Katie Rogers in mid and Zynia, Katie Slark-Hollis and Helena up front, backed up by Frankie. There were plenty of opportunities to score Katie Slark-Hollis had a great shot on goal which was saved brilliantly by the Bishops keeper, Frankie made a great shot just outside of D toward Lottie who just missed placing a touch on it before hitting the back of the net. Luckily Zynia was able to break through Bishops defence and score the first goal of the match. At the other end of the pitch the defence worked well through Olivia Hyndman and Whyte, Maddie and Emma. With some great saves from Kerry in Goal (psyched up from her GK session with Ollie Juszt - NAGS U18 Goalie). Grace and Lottie also played well pressurising in mid. At the end of the first half it was 1-0 to Bury.

Team talk at the break refocused the girls (whilst allowing them to hydrate and take some sugar on board) with the key take away being ‘smash them’ (Jet’s final email to the girls), ‘you can do this’ and ‘believe in yourselves’.

The girls started strongly in the second half working the ball well across the pitch. Unfortunately, Bishops pressed well and got a break resulting in them scoring and levelling the match 1-1. Bury held their guard though and continued to press through into the oppositions D. Again, there were plenty of goal scoring chances again for Zynia, for both Katie’s as well as Josie, Helena and Frankie. The Bishops keeper unfortunately did everything she could to prevent Bury from adding to the score line. At the back the defence continued to thwart Bishops advances through the Olivia’s, Emma and Maddie. Alex made some fantastic saves in goal despite feeling a little under the weather. Bury pressed hard and through perseverance and skill finally scored in quick succession through Katie Rogers and we believe Josie too getting the last tap of the ball after a great goal scoring shot from Zynia. The team continued to pressurise Bishops throughout the final 5 minutes before the full-time whistle finally blew. Final score 3-1.

Alex commanded the girls superbly in the absence of Jet, especially considering he was a little worse for wear following the end of season bash where he celebrated captaining the Men’s 1st to promotion. Whereas Matt provided stellar direction to the defenders and the goalkeeper.

The girls absolutely ‘smashed it’ and with it secured top position in Division 7 with 13 points (unlucky for some, but very lucky for this group of girls) from 4 wins and 1 draw. Their unbeaten record means they now go through to the Area Finals on 11/12 May (alongside the U14 Boys who also won 3-1 today at Spalding).

#Go Bury #Go Coaches #Go Girls (and Boys) #Go Future Hockey Stars #All Have Talent #Success Breeds Success