Ladies 1's Vs Sudbury

Hertford Ladies 1's battled hard at home against top of the league Sudbury on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon. Hertford won the toss but due to the bright sunshine gave up first push back to make Sudbury play into the sun. From the starting whistle the home team were loud and feisty; they took majority of possession for at least the first 15 minutes and most of the play was in Hertfords attacking half putting Sudbury under great pressure in defence. Despite a number of short corners the first goal came from open play with a fantastic ball across from forward Jen Heath to captain and midfield Molly Pallett at the top of the D. A dummy from reverse to strong side lost the defender and Pallett struck the ball hard and strong past the keepers right foot into the bottom corner of the goal. This was perhaps what switched on the initially lethargic Sudbury side and Hertford began to see a turn of the tides. Sudbury equalised not long after the first goal and went on to score a second in quick succession with a great reverse hit from their skilful forward taking the score to 2-1 at half time. A tactical talk at half time (and a bag of tangfastics) from Hertfords coach gave the team a bit of a boost and they went back on to the pitch with determination to battle on. It was a battle indeed. The defence weren't given any time to rest and worked fantastically as a team to block shots and clear balls with special mention to Teresa Bartram and Hannah Brown who both had a fantastic game. Unfortunately for Hertford, Sudbury didn't let up and their 3rd goal came from a superb deflection shot off the right past which absolutely flew into the back of the net. Captain Pallett wasn't ready to admit defeat yet though and with words of encouragement to the team Hertford created a number of chances with some excellent runs from Helen Owen and Jenny Goodson and some incredible diving from Heath in the D to try and even the score. Solid ball play from Rawlinson in defensive midfield gave Pallett another opportunity to score after a run to the top of the D and similar to the first goal (although slightly more luck and less skill) Pallett managed to bag herself a second and took the score to 3-2 bringing Hertford very much back into the game. The last 15 minutes were pure excitement and a joy to play. There was some excellent hockey across both teams and although Sudbury scored another great goal to make it 4-2 Hertford did not make it an easy win for them by any means. Goalkeeper Ella Mitham made some incredible saves and in spite of the scoreline Hertford left the pitch oozing positivity and ready to face local rivals WGC next week.