Henley Women’s 4s (and in particular Captain Charlotte Moore) were very pleased to welcome back their Coach and She-Who-Must-Be Obeyed, Ali Jean-Jean after a 2-week leave of absence in which she no doubt spent the time meditating, going to bed early and drinking green juice in careful preparation for the remaining matches of the year. Also, very welcome this week were two special guests; Tilly Costa on loan from the 3s to help out in defence and long-term friend of the club, Georgie Metcalfe, who was having a bit of “me time” away from her very small children and generously decided to spend it with the team.
Owing to a strange surplus of available talent across all Henley Women’s teams this week, there was a bit of jiggery pokery with positions, which saw Captain Moore drop down to mid-field and Nicola Nott reprise her Right Back position for a second time. Which just went to show her and the rest of the squad that dreams really can come true. Many times. ?
The Visitors won the toss and took first push back. But from the off, the home side dominated. Jen Buckham-Hedges quickly turned over the ball and transferred to Georgie Metcalfe who found Nina Lloyd for an attempt on goal. The keeper reacted quickly but Henley kept up the pressure as Georgie and Amy Hill peppered the hapless defence with balls. Henley soon won a short corner, which although they were unable to convert, led immediately to a second. Tilly injected to Jen who took a straight strike. The keeper managed to deflect but Tilly ran at lightening speed onto left post and caught the rebound, slotting it immediately into goal to open the scoring for Henley in the 10th minute.
For the next 25 minutes, Henley subjected the visitors to sustained pressure and territorial dominance. Ali, Georgie and Mabel Felwick worked well in mid-field to link play and deliver balls up to the forwards. Emilia Ziegler ran as if she had wings. On two occasions she collected the ball deep, outran the opposition players up the right wing, cut into the D and delivered the ball to the back of the net to take Henley first 2-0 and then 3-0 up in the space of 3 minutes. Periodically Scarlet Runners were able to win possession and take the ball towards the Henley goal but Audrey Edimoh, reprising her position as Henley keeper for this week, was well up to the challenge and successfully repelled any attempt. Henley continued to dominate and hone their short corner routine, with Georgie making a powerful strike that sailed past the keeper bottom left to push Henley further into the lead at 4-0.
From this vantage point, Henley were now able to relax and have the space to refine their style of hockey. Florence Moorcroft, Sophie Ward and Nicky Watts transferred the ball round the back to draw the opposition players and create space for the mid-field to pick up the ball and drive forwards. As they pressed higher, the home team were perfectly positioned to repeat this formation further up the pitch with good decision making from Nicky on the side-line sending the ball backwards to Ali who immediately released it to create an open channel of play on the other side of the pitch. At one point Ali sent a long ball the length of the pitch into open space which saw Nina sprint with the speed of Usain Bolt to recover it just in the nick of time before it crossed the back line. She was immediately able to find Georgie powering into the D, but unfortunately the keeper had anticipated the move and successfully blocked to deny Henley their chance.
A final short corner to Henley before the half time whistle saw a perfect injection from Amy to Georgie which was picked up by Ali on post to bring the score to 5-0 to Henley.
With confidence brimming, Henley returned to the pitch with more goals in their sights and it didn’t take long for Katherine to work her magic on left post and increase the goal tally inside 5 minutes, with Emilia, to the dismay of the Scarlet Runners, repeating her trade mark run down the right side to add another a minute later. Fearing they may be missing some action, defensive backs Nicola and Flo decided to get in on the action and worked with Evie Quinn to move the ball up into the opposition third, demonstrating speed and athleticism equal to their mid-field/forward colleagues. With another short corner came another goal, courtesy of Nina and Emilia topped off an impressive 4th thanks to a perfectly timed ball from Mabel. With the clock ticking down towards the end of the match, it was almost time for the team’s special guest members to bid goodbye, but not before delivering a parting gift. With a couple more short corners awarded, Georgie did her thing and converted both bringing the final score to an outstanding 11-0 to Henley.
Congratulations to the whole team who produced outstanding hockey, but in particular to Emilia who was voted Player of the Match, with Georgie and Mabel in second place and Nina in third.