Ladies 1s 3- Thurrock 1

It appeared that Thurrock had a microclimate over their pitch on Saturday with the team complaining about the sun in their eyes rather than the Hail!

At the beginning of the game, Captain, Francesca Hayden-Sims, established that she couldn’t find many good things that come in 11…..well now we can certainly say BHC Ladies’ 1st XI do and even come as an extremely good 10. The game did not get off to the best of starts with Emily Walker having to umpire the first 20 minutes, leaving the team with only 10 players to start the game. That being said, the team still put plenty of pressure on Thurrock and the game appeared even in terms of possession with the players fighting hard. Thurrock broke the deadlock after winning the first penalty corner of the game, the shot was fired in and deflected at the post. Brentwood worked hard and fought back with some excellent passing play down the right from Natalie Gilder and Anna Guida. The ball fell for Bev Simmons in the dee who passed it from the back line and found Lauren Blackburn for a deflection with Brentwood able to even out the score. Lisa Payne and Beth James defended strongly on the left hand side to stop any more Thurrock advances. Walker managed to get back on the pitch, enabling Shirley Osmotherly-Hull to push higher and aid more players to create attacks. The pressure gave Brentwood their first penalty corner, which went to Gilder for a strike on goal and was read well by Lily Wiltshire who pounced and found the gap in the Thurrock defence which meant Brentwood went in to half time with the lead.

In the second half, Thurrock fought back strong but the whole team defended well and Haylee Adams was there time again to block them coming in to the dee, meaning Lorna Parsons was able to “just watch” today as she so desired. The last goal of the game came with pressure from Brentwood leaving Walker to block a chance from Thurrock and then pass up the pitch where Brentwood proceeded to tear the opposition apart with some clinical passing across the pitch between Simmons, Guida, Wiltshire and Blackburn, leaving Simmons with a one on one chance with the keeper. Staying calm and composed, she passed it past the keeper for the third and final goal of the game.

Man to the match went to Blackburn for her creative skills and attacking play. Osmotherly-Hull, Gilder, Simmons and Guida all received votes too.

Notable fine for James who get Payne sent….and subsequently voted for Payne as Dick of the Day! Also another fine for our super supportive Captain and her brilliant goal celebrations from the side.