Close to home victory for Ladies 1s

Henley started well managing to move the ball up the pitch, protecting the centre. Reading had some good passages of play down the line into Henley’s end quarter, but they were met with a strong defensive line which firmly challenged any of Reading’s chances on goal. Henley kept pushing up and after 13 minutes Henley scored their first goal from a well-worked penalty corner by Kat Green and Louisa England, with England deflecting the ball into the top corner of the net. Not long later, Jemma Barham led a strong attack down the left hand side linking with England in the middle of the pitch who accurately pushed the ball forward to an awaiting Georgie Metcalfe. A one touch shot by Metcalfe found the small gap between the goalkeeper and post soring Henley’s second goal. After 10 minutes, Metcalfe scored her second goal from a quick interception leaving her at the top of the D with a clean shot on goal, making it 0-3 and giving Henley a real boost of confidence. Unfortunately for the amber and blues, Reading managed to convert from a penalty corner to make the score 1-3 just before half time.

But this only fired Henley up. Shortly after half time, Charlotte Cockerton made a strong run from the half way line beating numerous Reading players before calmly and accurately striking a reverse hit into the bottom left hand side of the goal. For the remainder of the second half Henley kept their defence tight and managed to prevent any more goals being scored by the opposition. In the 50th minute a foul in the D from the opposition led to Henley’s final goal being scored by Kat Green from a penalty corner, bringing the score to 1-5 and sealing victory. After a high work rate and dynamic play by Henley all over the pitch, they were awarded 3 points pushing them up to 4th place in the table.