Liberton - Another Fight Well Fought

First home game of the season.
Our first home game of the season and another cracking Saturday afternoon for a game. The sun was shining as we gathered at the pitch for our warm up and pre-game chat. This was Daisy and Kirsty’s first game with us, and the second game for Rachel and Hannah, so with a mix of nerves and excitement in the air, Mel gave us her ever motivational chat and reminded us to put what we practiced at training in to our game.
After a decent warm up on the pitch, the game started. It didn’t take long to get in to full swing, with both teams having equal possession and lots of fire. With the game being fast paced, I think we were all very glad to have a full team, so lots of subbing was going on meaning we could all give it our all on the pitch. Jena and Jen made some lovely switches round the back to Catie and Rachel on the wings, who both made great passes up the field. Although we were getting the ball in to the D a couple of times, the strong tackles and hits from Liberton often sent the ball back down our end, and they had a couple of shots at goal before picking up a corner. Liberton passed the ball around when taking the corner, resulting in a bit of a scrap for the ball from both teams, but unfortunately for us a Liberton player found it in to the back of the net. 1-0 to them, and we tried to maintain our fighting spirit as we reset up play.
It was then our turn for a corner, Kate took a good strike, saved well by Libertons goalie, and then the ball started ping-pong round the D, all of us holding our breath. Goalie went down, the passing went on… so close to a goal but unfortunately went over the base line for Liberton to take a hit out.
The play went on, lots of lovely passes from defence to mid to forward players, with calm and cool play from Rachel in defence and Daisy and Kirsty on the wings. Who would have thought it was their first games in a while? You wouldn’t have known.
Just before half time, Liberton were given another short and a strong strike gave them another goal, making it 2-0 going into half time.
We refreshed ourselves with oranges and sweets which Captain Mel kindly brought along (oranges were very appreciated with the heat) and listened to her key points on how the game was going and how we could improve. Although we were 2-0 down, we were quite happy with our game play.
Back on the pitch for the second half, and Hannah joined us, making strong passes up the wing and a brilliant cross right in front of the goals which unfortunately didn’t make the back of the net, much to a sigh of relief from Liberton. Ellen, Izzy and Imogen made some great runs in their forward positions and had a couple of shots in the D.
Liberton were then awarded another corner - a strong strike was saved well by Sask, which then initiated rebound time. The ball pinged around again before making its way back out to the edge of the D, were Liberton tried for a second strike. And what a strike it was… right hand corner of goal… open air.. super fast. Not too fast for Sask though as she made another brilliant save, leaving us all a bit speechless!
The final whistle blew with the score remaining at 2-0. We felt like we had played well so left the pitch with our heads high and had some banana bread kudos to moi.
The fun was only beginning though, as later that eve we had our team meal with the M1’s at Tuk Tuk (as well as some great chat and laughs beforehand at pre’s at Imogen’s). The team meal was brill, the chat rolled, the drinks flowed before we went to bar 40-42 and to be honest, that part of the night is a bit of a blur for me!

Thank you to Ian McDonald for umpiring our game.