U12 In2 East Regional Champions!

First up in their group the girls faced St Albans, a club with a great coaching ethos and a strong, skilful team. City had their now traditional slow start, St Albans getting behind our defence to score first. Fortunately, this seemed to rile Esther W., who a couple of minutes later drove up the pitch towards the D, realised where she was, and smashed in the equaliser. After this the team relaxed. A second goal followed very quickly, and the girls saw out the remainder of the match, with continuous pressure on the St Albans goal. 

Next up the girls faced another good side in Norwich who play great hockey. However their 2 best players were fully occupied with what became the impossible task of marking Vi & Emily. A solid 3-0 win, followed quickly by another 3-0 win against Bury St Edmunds. The last group game was against Old Loughts who we had not faced in the season, and who we had been told had an excellent goalkeeper. Just as the match started, the heavens opened for some proper hockey weather. This appeared to finally wake the girls up! They played some exceptional hockey, passing the ball around the OL keeper who stood no chance, for an 8-0 win. Group winners and a semi-final against Dereham who finished runners up in the other group 😀

Dereham were strong at the back, with one player in particular hitting the ball with a lot of power for this age group. Despite some very hard hits, the girls stepped up & pressed hard, and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. The other semi final went to flicks, with local rivals Bishop's Stortford (the best team we had played this season) triumphing in sudden death. The final then, was against the only team we drew with all season. 

Ahead of the Final, the girls seemed uncharacteristically nervous. That is, until Anne-Marie promised to do a cart-wheel if they won. Tension broken! The first few minutes of the final were fairly even, until City took the lead with a great team goal. From then on the result was never in doubt. Esther and Liv at the back maintained their mantra of ‘they shall not pass’. Ellie controlled the midfield, with super distribution wide. Vi, Emily and Bea were a constant threat, and Molly, Maggie and Aggy provided ever more ball pace and running so that Stortford were unable to get back into the game. City then scored a second goal to put the match beyond doubt.

The wonderful part of this tournament and the team has been how well the squad have worked together. The squad rotated seamlessly with substitutes coming on to add even more intensity.The girls saw the game out as we like to play, in control, in the opposition half and in possession of the ball. Brilliant. We conceded only 3 shots on target and 1 goal all day - a huge thank you to keeper Esther G. as well! 

The day finished with a trophy lift & as promised Anne-Marie performed several cart-wheels to celebrate. A great (but slightly damp) day out. Thoroughly deserved by the girls and 2 very proud coaches in Andy & Anne-Marie. National Finals in Nottingham to come, what a great opportunity.