Ladies' 1s suffer first defeat

This week Brentwood Ladies 1’s travelled to Lee Valley Hockey & Tennis Centre at the Olympic Park to face Crostyx. The home team started the match solidly, and immediately threatened the Brentwood defence with some fluid movement across the pitch, however tight marking at the back by Ruth Tilsley and Haylee Adams meant they were unable to find the space in the dee to get a clean shot at goal. Crostyx continued to press for the entirety of the first half and Brentwood struggled to find the space going forward to play the passing game they favour. Crostyx came close to breaking the deadlock a number of times but some superb goalkeeping from player of the match Lorna Parsons and a number of goal line saves by the Brentwood defence just before half time kept Crostyx out and the half finished 0-0.

A positive team talk and change in formation saw Brentwood take to the field in the second half with a renewed energy and they started applying pressure on the Crostyx defence and forcing errors. Captain Emily Wright in the middle of the field was able to provide structure to the team going forward and worked well with Natalie Gilder, Anna Guida and Shirley Osmotherly to maintain possession and open up space for the Brentwood forward line to make some penetrating runs into the dee. However Crostyx were quick on the break and a turnover by Brentwood allowed the Crostyx centre forward time in front of dee to smash the ball into the back of the net and get the lead that they had been looking for. Brentwood didn’t give up and continued to work hard to try and find an equalizer. The forward line of Nikki Brimson, Louise Humphreys and Lauren Simmons adopted a high press which put pressure on the solid Crostyx defence and saw Brentwood winning more of the ball in the attacking 25. Space opened up for Brentwood in the final few minutes of the match when Sandy Pass was able to find a gap in the Crostyx press and get the ball out wide on the right to an open Lucy Partridge who popped the ball into space down the line for Lisa Payne to run onto, however a good pick up and clearance in the dee by the Crostyx sweeper saw the time out and the final whistle went.

Brentwood will take a lot of positives from this match and look forward to hosting Colchester at Becket Keys School at 12:30pm next week.