It was with a heavy mist and a discernible lack of energy (really from the U25s) that the HHC Women’s 4s made their way down the M4 and into the Royal Borough of Windsor for the first league match of the morning. Locating the venue was easy enough, but finding the changing rooms was a whole other ball game. Happily, most of the team seemed equipped with the wherewithal to work it out but unfortunately as far as the captain was concerned, it was an epic fail. Which was a shame. Because she had the balls, the masks, the first aid kit. And crucially, the clipboard!

With the full team assembled, including newbie Lizzie Briscoe, stepping across this week from the 3s and Tilly Costa and Georgie Metcalfe, who both had such a blast last week that they came back for a 2nd helping, Coach Jean-Jean sketched out her team formation. But each time she tried to remind the team of key tactics, one or other of the opposition team players made a “sorry/not sorry” appearance as they made their way through to use the toilets at the other end of the room. Which was highly convenient. For them. Not us.

Unperturbed, Captain Moore threw herself into the “which hand is my whistle in” game with the umpires and won the toss. Already things were looking positive. So Henley took first push back and dominated from the off. Sustained pressure from the two Georgies (Moore and Metcalfe) in the mid-field, with some fluid linking play with Evie Quinn meant that the ball was a constant threat outside of the D with forwards Amy Hill and Nina Lloyd making strong leads to position themselves ready to strike. Captain Moore was quick to win the first short corner and although the visitors were unable to convert, Metcalfe blocked the ball from leaving the Windsor third and returned it to the D to win a second. Making her first appearance of the season after returning from injury, what better way for Kat Green to announce “Kat’s back” than to step up at the top of the D and deliver a powerful one hit strike to land the ball behind the keeper bottom right. So that’s what she did to open the scoring for Henley around the 10 minute mark. Henley made several more shots on goal, with Georgia Moore and Nina denied by the keeper both times.

As Henley pressed higher, Windsor took advantage of a gap in the channel to power down their left-hand side towards the Henley goal. Sophia Cunliffe, spotting trouble, picked up the pace and chased the opposition player down, gaining ground on her and forcing her out wide to the very edge of the pitch where she lost control of the ball. Capitalising on the free hit, Sophia C transferred the ball to Ali Jean-Jean who linked with Evie and Nicola Nott to move the ball on. However, as the whole team pressed higher, a mistake by Henley allowed Windsor to turn the ball over with enough space for one of their attackers to drive it at speed down an open field towards the Henley goal. As the sole remaining line of defence, Henley keeper Sophia Price stepped out of the goal mouth with calm if not slightly menacing authority. As the Windsor player took aim, Sophia P was ready and with the skill of a seasoned pro, expertly repelled the shot.

Woken up by such a close call, Henley doubled down their efforts in the mid-field and started to stretch play, ensuring they used the width of the pitch to execute pass and lead movements to transfer the ball from Florence Moorcroft to Mabel Felwick, up to Evie and on to Nina on the right wing. As Evie established herself as the central fulcrum of the game, she picked up ball after ball and fed them towards the D. Henley continued to pepper the goal with shots until eventually Evie pushed home a second goal for Henley and shortly afterwards managed to secure a third from a short corner penalty by some quick thinking on the left post.

Henley maintained intensity and as Nina travelled with the ball up the right wing, she left the Windsor defence behind and ran towards the D at an angle. She released the ball with precision timing, making a perfectly weighted pass to Charlotte who received it at the left hand-side edge of the D and swept it towards goal. Although it hit the post, Henley reset immediately and moments later, Nicola attempted a similar shot that just went wide. With Georgia and Georgie making a seamless double G act in the centre to create chances for Henley, the opposition defence had to work hard for the score line to remain stable, and the first half ended with Henley 3-0 in the lead.

In the second half, Henley honed their linking play with some fluid passing between the Moore mother and daughter duo and Mabel blocking any attempt by Windsor to get towards the Henley D and distributing the ball evenly left and right to create new channels of play. As the Henley side grew in confidence, the defence pressed higher with Florence making some lovely runs down the right wing and Ingrid Johnston coming up on the left. Showing her versatility as a player, Tilly Costa worked well with newcomer Lizzie Briscoe up front to create chances, but in the end it was a text book 1-2 transfer between Evie and Georgia which secured the 4th goal with Georgia timing her run precisely to the P spot to receive Evie’s ball and slap it to the back of the net.

Although Windsor were able to win a short corner, their striking strategy was no match for Mabel and Florence’s speed out to the ball and goalie Sophia’s quick reactions. Henley were able to maintain the intensity as the home side started to tire and were awarded several further short corners, but not before one of the Windsor defenders tried to take Amy out with a lifted ball, smack, straight into her right shoulder and Nina with a forceful ball, whack, to the left thigh. As the game came to a close, Henley’s final short corner seemingly involved nearly each of the players in the D taking a touch of the ball until Ali decided to finish it off with a final tap on the left post to ensure it crossed the line. As the whistle blew, the final score was a well won victory to Henley of 5-0.

Congratulations to all the players, each of whom contributed to the result, but in particular to Evie who was overwhelmingly voted Player of the Match, with Mabel a close second with keeper Sophia Price and Georgia Moore sharing third place.