Ladies 2's give Oxford 1's Five

The fresh-faced Ladies 2^nd XI went into their first full friendly of the new season with lots of confidence against Oxford 1^st XI who they will be playing in the league this year. Hawks started the half brightly and although they had the lions share of possession, Oxford looked quick on the break so focus was key. Hawk’s defence was well organised by Laura and Vicky and Rosie put in a number of dangerous balls across pitch from the left-hand side.

Another attack down the left led to the ball floating across the D to Alice Potter to coolly put it back across the keeper into the corner to give Hawks the lead. From there, Hawks got a lot of short corner practice, the Oxford midfield got a lot of running to the halfway line fitness but the ball was refusing to cross the line. 

An Oxford breakaway left Millie with a one on one which she handled with great confidence and she cleared the ball away convincingly. Before the half time whistle, Mary made it 2-0 to Hawks with a reverse stick deflection which she said was “actually pretty good”. The only negative in the half was Lilli taking a ball to the hand which left her with a pretty fat finger which we all hope is now less porky.  

Wilko’s wise words at half time sent the home side out with lots of confidence and they went onto dominate the second half.

Helen sent an absolute bullet of a ball into the D which debutant Rachel deflected in to make the score 3-0. Then Kathryn having just possibly saved a goal from going in and squealing about it, made sure that the short corner stats went up by popping in a rebounded shot for 4-0. Not wanting to be outdone, donkey of the day Vicky injected a short and won Saturday’s squealing effort when her effort went narrowly wide.

In the dying minutes, Helen got her Rosies and Harriets confused whilst injecting a short corner but her deliberate mistake meant that Harriet received the ball directly at left slip and her straight strike left the keeper with no chance of stopping it and Hawks with a well-deserved 5-0 victory.

Thanks to Evelyn Hargraves for the excellent photos.