Saturday saw a frustrating loss for Gowerton Ladies. With Rachel not playing, I captained the team against Cardiff Uni 3’s.
After an intense warm up; the first half we really came out fighting and dominated the game, we had the possession but were struggling to finish.
The first half saw great switching of side line balls from Hannah Preuss through the defence with Victoria Vaughan and Annie Williams releasing the balls to Helen Quinn and her running the ball up the pitch.
A lifted strike from Jayde Piontecki nearly saw us go 1-0 up and Nicola Tucker was running herself ragged up front. A well defended short corner by Gowerton led to a a goal from Jayde, rightly so seeing Gowerton lead 1-0. We were using the play to our advantage. Gowerton were the stronger team.
1-0 up and a half time talk about quick balls and man marking led the girls back out on the pitch for the second half with their heads held high. A slight loss of structure within the middle of the pitch caused some mistakes with Cardiff players being left unmarked but this was soon sorted out and Gowerton defended their socks off.
At some point in the D, I was scared of us myself with shots being saved on the line and Amy continuing with her epic saves! It was looking good for Gowerton but a fumble in the D led to Cardiff dribbling the ball over the line and making the score 1-1.
This disheartened the girls as they were all fighting really hard. A second goal then came from Cardiff from a pass into the D and shortly followed by another flukey goal where the ball dribbled over the line despite the defence bouncing shots back at them. Gowerton continued to fight but had nothing left in their tanks.
A 3-1 loss for Gowerton does not reflect the game and I was proud to captain that side on Saturday. Every one of the girls played amazingly and we did not deserve to lose.
My captains player this week has to go to Victoria Vaughan for her consistency at the back, great tackling and ball switching. Sorry, I’m a defender so might be biased! Good work GLHC!
Katie Young
Vice-Captain
gowerton hockey 