Parkes Hotel Football Club v Railway Hotel Boilers

It’s official – first win of the season and we doubled our number of previously scored goals.
It was a game of the rookies and rookies once removed! Lane, Skye and Ains all had a cracking game! Lane seemed to be everywhere at once and always in the right place. To honour this, she earned the chant, “Lane, Lane, she’s a pain, always in your way” because she so often was in the way of the opposition causing them grief. She took numerous kicks on the volley and has grown in leaps and bounds with her confidence in trapping, turning and passing the ball. Lane took out Player’s Player of the match. Skye, our second rooky for the year also had an awesome game. She was quick to follow on-field instructions, stuck to the player she was marking, was always leading the scramble to keep the back line high to catch Boilers in an offside trap and stopped many a play down the sideline. Skye also took a chest ball in a neat trap and passed it off up the line. And Ains, our rooky once removed (cause she’s in her second season with PHFC) had multiple sprints to run down through balls and deftly turned the ball to the sideline to redistribute it back up the line to the waiting winger. She shut down many a Boiler play for glory with her quick runs and accurate footwork. I’m considering giving Ains the chant – “Ains, Ains, rushing like trains, she’ll run you off your track!”

The rest of the team played well too, more on that in a moment. Esther, watching injured from the sideline commented that she could the see the advantage our team had in speed over the Boilers, “every one of us was able to outrun the Boiler they were marking”. Greta even had a half-field sprint and managed to win the ball – old girls can run!? Esther agreed with the Ass. Coach that we were too quiet on the field – Gordo claimed it was “too much like a library out there”. After initial violent protests from some of the noisier players, like Greta and Zarna, and thanks to Esther’s explanation, we started to realise that what we need is not just whooping and hollering and triumphant chanting (these all have their place in keeping up moral), what we needed was more “constructive chatter to direct the play”. So girls, this weekend, we need more calls of “look up”, “have a run yourself”, “you’ve got time”, “come with me 1, 2”, “XXX’s free”, “man on”, etc. We are getting pretty good at calling out about marking up, but now need to shift up to the next gear and start talking about our game plan.

Now to more game details. In the first 10 minutes we had multiple shots on goal – none finding the net and several finding the crossbar or side pole of goal. That trend persisted for much of the game – I think the ball hit the cross bar or pole >5 times over the match and we had many beautiful shots and some excellent crosses, that just nipped away from the winger or striker valiantly trying to get to the back post in time to nudge it in. The good news is that we were making those runs and we were demonstrating excellent passing skills. Coach Mal was happy with the chances created and urged us to be a little more clinical with our finishes for next week. Ass. Coach Gordo also commented on our passing and in particular pointed out that players who’ve had less game time this season (like Pinko and Bec) smashed it out! Well done to Pinko and Bec who seemed to always be in the right place at the right time. Bec was in the thick of things in the middle and narrowly missed connecting with some of the afore mentioned crosses. Pinko directed play through a number of careful back passes and dashes up the sideline. Well done ladies!

Our goals were scored by Deano and Lauren Chester. Deano is getting more experience with the “off side” call and was valuable in the striker and mid-field position. Lauren was electric, bagging a hattrick of goals – her speed and fancy feet combined allowed her to dominate and earned her the chant, “Chester, Chester, non can best ‘er”. She also took out Coach’s Player of the match.

That’s the main highlights of the weekend’s game, but there’s still a few more interesting tid-bits to share. I’ll call them memorable moments:
•Haylz helped set up goals, and was involved in many of our strong challenges – the most memorable being a triple rebounding dot shot which came off the pole twice and goalie once. Go Haylz!
•Kath took a defensive header at 90 degrees while running down a bouncing through ball, she deftly headed it out the sideline. She also made a 180 degree kick through some sort of swivel hipped magic? She was again running down a through ball heading straight toward the goal and then somehow managed to send a powerful kick back the other way to our winger without breaking her stride. Go figure?
•Greta lead the charge on many 50:50 chances to steal the ball and took one with a double header (head it, run through, head it again).
•Stacey tried out a new position – in the mid-field – and after a bit of reorienting took on the roll of middle menace by getting involved in multiple challenges – including one which sent her head over turkey.
•Jacinta tried out back line and striker position applying her big boot in both positions after taking on some big runs.
•Zarna only touched the ball a few times but took out a one on one challenge with a slide and grab and later charged out past her box to clear it with a kick that narrowly missed Kath’s head.
•Tash moved into the mids and worked well – so well that she earned the chant, “Hulk smash, Tash crash” as she involved herself in one hard tackle after the other! Her pace to snatch the ball helped set up many of our chances on goal.

All in all, it was an awesome game and we have lots to be proud of! Go PHFC!