Henley Ladies 1s vs PHC Chiswick: Won 3-2

The 7-1 loss at the start of the season was still a sore memory for most of the players, but the team was unrecognisable as they lined up for the starting whistle. With a new coach on the sideline, in the form of Henley stalwart Jen Buckham-Hedges, and some fresh faces on the pitch, if Chiswick felt they were in for an easy 3 points, they were mistaken.

The first five minutes saw both teams feeling the effects of the Christmas excess, with sloppy passing and mistakes occurring left, right and centre. But it was the amber and blues who woke up first and within the first ten minutes they were finding themselves in the attacking D and being awarded a second short-corner. A trademark disguise ball from Kat Green found Lou England on the P-Spot ready to deflect the ball up and over the ‘keeper to take the lead.

Jem Barham and Emma Walker worked tirelessly in the midfield to block the centre of the pitch and mark the danger players out of the game, much to the visiting players’ frustration. Any balls or players that did escape through were quickly tidied up by centre defence Kath Draycott, and the flow of play was soon returned to Henley’s favour.

Attacks up both the wings from Ellie Roseff and Georgie Metcalfe were a plenty and rotating forwards Charlotte Cockerton, Emma Buckham-Hedges, Hannah Jeremy, Katie Butler and Flic Jefferis were enjoying plenty of on-the-ball action. It was one beautiful sequence of open play that saw most team members participate in helping get the ball up to debutant Jefferis standing on the base-line; taking advantage of the opposition’s keeper stepping momentarily away from the post, from the smallest of angles she hammered the ball over the line. Henley went into the half-time break 2-0 up and on a high.

The second half was a different affair; Chiswick had awoken and were thirsty for revenge. Their half-time talk resulted in new tactics employed to plug the gaps that Henley had been exploiting, with the Henley players then stuck for options and easily turned over. The proceeding 20 minutes was not one for the season’s memoirs as Henley crumbled under the pressure. Despite unstinting commitment from defenders Draycott, man-of-the-match Mel Joyce and Green, there seemed more Chiswick players than was possible to mark, and the home side found themselves level again at 2-2.

The game could have gone one of two ways but Henley fought on and it became as much a mind-game as it was physical. Henley’s ‘keeper Hannah Lavis used her cat-like reactions to foil many attempt on goal, and the defensive short corner team were able to hold a clean sheet, after Jem Barham cleared a ball off the line. Confidence was regained and the ball began to find its way back into the attacking half once again, with centre midfield Lou England instrumental in orchestrating numerous counterattacks. It looked like a draw was on the cards but with just ten minutes on the clock a long ball to captain Georgie Metcalfe resulted in a one-on-one with the keeper, and she calmly manoeuvred herself so that a strike from the top of the D took the home side ahead, to finish the game 3-2 and 3 points higher in the table.

Written by Kat Green