A devastating 8-0 defeat

Hertford ladies 1's travelled a hefty distance to Sudbury on a wet and miserable Saturday afternoon to suffer a devastating defeat which they really could have done without.
Filling in for half term holiday goers were defenders Kirsty Craig and Laura Sharmam with midfielder Jenny Goodson and forward Lesh Wilkerson and young Olivia Veoden taking the brave position of goalkeeper. Captain Molly Pallett and ,and man of the match vice captain Hannah Brown knew the competition they were facing and decided to play the more defensive formation of 4-4-2; unfortunately for Hertford it had little impact.

After a late start and a shortened warm up, Hertford won the toss and took early possession out wide for an attsck down the right wing but the ball never made it past the Sudbury defence. Sudbury were extremely well-drilled and played triangles around Hertford up and down the wings. They scored the first when Hertford were caught high on the break and followed it fairly quickly with a second off a short corner despite plenty of others being cleared by the Hertford defence. Craig in particular was solid in centre back and her stick was an absolute magnet to the ball. Despite some patches of great hockey in the first half and some blinding defending by Hannah Brown Hertford found themselves 2-0 down at half time.

The talk was anything but negative; Hertford picked out what they believed were the wesk aspects of the Sudbury formation and came out fighting at the start of the second half with belief that they could turn the game around. A combination of unfamiliarity playing together, a very biased umpire and a couple of extremely talented Sudbuury scorers saw Hertford take am absolute pasting in the second half. Poor Veoden was faced with a rocket of a tomahawk along with a number of deep corner sitters and despite some great saves and some fantastic movement on the goal line and around the D Hertford saw themselves at 8-0 when the final whistle went. Whatever the score line Hertford maintain that it did not reflect the play in the field and continued to battle with true vigour for every minute they were on the pitch.