Our Wilmsbury Women (a combined team made up of Wilmslow and Norbury) played a home game at Disley this week, meeting Leeds for the first round of the Cup.
We played an 8-a-side game at Leeds's request, which suited us just fine as we already had an impressive 15-woman squad — so plenty of subs to play a high energy game. We had big hopes for this match, as we'd already beaten Leeds earlier in the season, and were looking to build on some positive performances in the previous weeks…
…and that's exactly what we did! One of our main objectives was to maintain possession of the ball, and that all began with our fantastic draw-takers Amy, India and Georgia J. When they weren't self-drawing, they gave 100% of their effort winning those 50/50 balls and setting the team up to play some patient, thoughtful attack.
We've been consistently developing our attacking shape and working the ball for the best opportunity — and this week was maybe the top example of the season so far. Even when half-chances presented themselves, we were calm and waited to take the right shot. We ran isolations for our key drivers, who picked their shots carefully. Our sneakier cutters kept the defence's heads turning, with the handling to thread the needle.
As always, our middies worked hard all over the pitch — transitioning to attack and redefending hard when the ball turned over. Running up and down a pitch for 60 minutes is always tiring, but the boggy conditions made for some very tired legs and some very tricky groundballs.
And at the other end of the pitch, our defensive stars Maisy, Scarlett and Alys were all over their attackers with brilliant, fundamentally-sound body — plus some seriously impressive checks. They were joined by our very own Duracell Bunny, Meg, who channelled all that energy into turning up the pressure and creating some fantastic turnovers.
And last but never least, our unbelievable goalie Kate continued her impressive series of form. She made some sensational stops, and showed her incredible accuracy on the clears. So incredible in fact, that she was our Woman of the Match — very well-deserved!
In the end, it was a comfortable 16-4 victory for Wilmsbury as we book our place in the next round. See you there!
