Match Report, Girls U10s - Herts League, Oct 8th 2017

Match Report – Girls U10s, Herts League Oct 8th @ Simon Balle
Busy day for the Girls U10s (and Coaches!) on a lovely warm Autumn day at Simon Balle.
Hertford fielded 4 teams in total in the first Herts League match of the season. In the first Tier 2 session, Hertford C and Hertford D both played 4 matches each. These teams are a mixture of ability and we had several girls playing their first ever match.
Hertford Cs won 2 and drew 2. The girls saved the best for the last match, where they were simply awesome and thumped Blueharts C 3-0. They scored 5 in total and didn’t concede any goals. Grace Brown in GK did some fantastic clearances to wide positions. Unfortunately the girls haven’t quite grasped what ‘wide’ means, usually all populating a small area in the middle of the pitch, so there wasn’t anybody there to pick the pass up. We’ll get there though! Goals were shared between Emily McKenna who scored 2 against Blueharts, Allegra Thornton (with a lovely reverse stick) and Gemma Archer. All the girls were fantastic, but I have to also make special mention of Imogen Palmer who was a rock in defence – nothing got past her, leading to the Blueharts Coach saying he would need to give his players some special tips because Imogen was stopping absolutely everything!
Hertford D team included a few new players playing their first ever matches. They performed admirably, with lots of competitive matches and great commitment. They ended the session with 3 of the matches ending 0-0 and only 1 narrow loss to St Albans C. With a bit of luck in front of goal, they could easily have secured a couple of wins. Great match experience for them all, and that will stand them in good stead for future matches.
Now onto the Tier 1 league which featured Hertford A and B teams – both of which are strong teams, reflecting the strength in the Girls U10s squad. It was a great afternoon with lots of hockey, each team playing 6 matches each. Hertford A kicked off with a comfortable 3-0 win against Royston B, followed by an even more resounding 4-0 win against St Albans B. The girls really looked impressive, and it could have been even more. Next a sterner test against Harpenden A, which despite incessant pressure on the Harpenden goal ended up 1-1 with Harpenden scoring a breakaway goal with virtually their only attack of the match. In the next match again Blueharts A, it was a closer match up with neither team managing to score, ending 0-0. The girls then beat Southgate 2-0, and hammered Harpenden B 5-0 in a one sided match. The A team have some outstanding players and it bodes well for the remainder of the season. The finished with a total of 15 goals scored and only 1 conceded, awesome stuff! Goals were shared between Martha Kerr, Ella Chandler, Alice Lynn, Ella Brunner and Nessa Critchley who scored 6 on her first outing for the A team, well done Nessa and of course to all the girls! Also, a big thanks to Blossom Coates-MacLean who played GK for the first time in the As yesterday, having only done one training session the day before! Blossom did really well with some great footwork. Blossom also played outfield for the D Team earlier in the day and did well, so I’m sure she would have slept well on Sunday night!
Finally Hertford B! The Bs fielded a strong team, all quite young and many were playing together for the 1st time. The team spirit and togetherness was amazing! They had their own little ‘social area’ behind the hockey bins between matches – very cute! The Bs started their session with a match against Harpenden B and dominated the match. They won 1-0 with a well struck shot from Eva Pidduck, but it could easily have been more. In their second match, they faced Blueharts A so on paper, a hard test. The Bs were playing without a proper GK (something that we will change for future matches) and this cost us with Blueharts scoring 2 early and pretty easy goals. A lesson for our girls not to pass across your own line which resulted in one of the goals. After this initial ‘shock’, the Bs came back into it really well and competed for every ball. The match ended 0-2, but hardly an annihilation. Next match was Harpenden A, again a difficult one on paper. The girls again went 2 goals behind, another one from passing across their own line, but they will learn. Another impressive comeback followed with the girls starting to threaten the Harpenden goal, and this led to a well taken ‘ follow up’ goal by Evie Macrae who pounced on the rebound off the keeper. Credit must go to Head Coach (Nick Evans) who was drumming that discipline into Evie at the last fixture. The match could easily have ended 2-2, especially as the Central TimeKeeper (no idea who that was…..!!), blew the final whistle just as Evie was lining up a shot which (apparently) she would have scored from…… Obviously I wasn’t paying attention at the time, otherwise I would have delayed blowing the whistle by a few extra seconds… c’est la vie!
In the next 2 matches, Hertford B drew 1-1 against Southgate after going ahead, but conceded a late equaliser. We then faced St Albans B, and again drew 1-1. This was a close match, but we were a bit unlucky with Evie hitting the post twice. In the final match against Royston B, the girls got off to a slow start and it seemed as though they had run out of steam. After a couple of close shaves on our goal, they seemed to get a second wind and suddenly they were back in it playing much better and starting to find some space. They began to pepper the Royston goal and eventually found the winner with a well taken shot by Lois Quinn to finish the match 1-0. Overall, the girls can feel proud of themselves and they will only get better as the season goes on.
Sorry, a long report but with 4 teams playing and a total of 20 matches played between them, there was a lot to say!

Rob Macrae
Team Manager
Girls U10s