Ladies 1 vs St Albans 4

Good afternoon HHCers, I’m back with another feeble attempt at keeping up with our resident reporter Reesy and to begin this weeks Ladies 1s coverage, I’ll start with a poem to give a level of cheer to what was a rather gloomy day …

It was raining,

It was pouring, 

Kev the ump was snoring

Yas bumped her head

I should have stayed in bed

Shall we try again in the morning? 

The build up to this week’s local derby against the Tangerine Titans was a mixed bag. Sadly a devastating shoulder diagnosis for our Captain means she is unlikely to feature on the pitch for some time, our GK had decided to get her eyeballs tattooed into the style of cats eyes meaning no game for her, and our ginger ninja had the gall to go on holiday the week before slip week.

On the positive side though, there was no message from “Night before Nick McLean” with regards to transport for Isla,  I made sure I took on the role of providing tissue stock for the team and with no dogs being allowed at Woollams there was no chance of any pitch invasions this week. 

The morning of the game came , with miserable weather and a bit of changing room faff. The “will they won’t they” of OAs letting us have their changing room threw Nat off but we all eventually figured out where to go and most of us were there on time eagerly waiting our pre-match team talk. Standardly, there was no sign of Yas and a quick phone call ascertained she hadn’t read any of the WhatsApp messages because she’d “muted the group” (jotted that down for the fines circle later) 

A few wise words from Bob, a short trek back to the pitch and we were ready to go. 

Our warm up playlist was sponsored by the 90s and whilst the more “mature” of the team were delighted, it successfully confused our juniors (what do you mean you don’t know who the backstreet boys are??) 

Despite the rain, our spirits were high, our warm up was good and we lined up in front of the sea of Irn Bru ready and raring to go.

We got off to a decent start, welcoming back Karen Bunbury, but this time in central defence with yours truly. Communication from the back was high, the youngsters on the wings were frequently released and we worked together to produce some lovely passages of play. The Tangerine Titans were a little taken aback by our midfield and forward’s tenacity and whilst they tried to threaten attacks a few times, they were by no means “all over us” 

We got a bit ahead of ourselves and a lapse in concentration found their centre forward with a free shot on goal… I’ve got no idea where I was , but safe to say, I wasn’t on her and she successfully slotted the ball in past our lovely Gemma, despite her best efforts

Harps 0 - St Albans - 1

We regrouped , determined not to let the first goal deter us and continued to press up the wings of the pitch, giving the TTs plenty to do and for a time, we were certainly the better side. Our mids were running their socks off, our forwards were chasing down balls and we were working together well. (Even Umpire Kev said so) 

A bit of a fluff up in our 23 saw one of their players send a ball into the D which took two deflections, one of off one of their sticks and the other off of Gemma’s foot.. 

Harps 0 - St Albans -2

By this time, I’d got a bit grumpy and was not willing to let us go down without a fight and so following a beautiful piece of intelligent play by Isla that won us a short corner gave the team a gee up at the top of the D. Seemed to work, we scored … not from the short but later.. I think. Well done Nat’s! 

Harps 1 - St Albans - 2

Goes a bit hazy here, it was raining hard and my nose was completely blocked so the concentration on detail was minimal. There was a lot of shouting and confidence I’m pretty sure , with Sophia embodying the strength of her Saracens links.  Having narrowly missed receiving a green card , by grovelling “sorry umpire that was a really silly thing to do” QC took pity on her and we played on. Following more decent build up play we scored again courtesy of our pocket rocket Sophia ! Can’t remember how it happened but it was good. 

Harps 2- St Albans - 2

Game on. 

Half time whistle blew, bit annoying.

The rain had scuppered Coach Bobs ability to write on the board, and so he informed us verbally about a change up in personnel. Had the board not been covered in rain , I truly believe the second half would have gone very differently. Note to our Vice Captain Bryony for the end of season present, board umbrella. 

Back onto the pitch we went, brimming with a desire to win .  The St Albans supporters upped their game and there was a bit more shouting which seemed to kick the Tangerine Titans into 3rd gear and away they went, very dangerous in the middle, lots of 1,2s, very nice.  Can’t say the same of our own supporters with Jack Reed from our Men’s 2s attempting to stop a stray ball with his foot,  which kicked it up straight into Yas’ forehead… whilst she was on the bench. What a waste of an ice pack.

Meanwhile on the pitch we battled on and a beautiful ball was sent to Karen Bunbury (now upfront with a nosebleed)  giving her and Emma W a 2 on 1 with the keeper. It’s a must score and having focussed on overload in our Monday night session, we all rightly knew another goal was on the cards… but no. Karen successfully belts it straight at the keeper… no goal. Boo.

Blimey, this report has gone on far too long and I need to take my next dose of cold and flu tablets so I’ll quickly wrap up the rest by saying that in the last 15 minutes, they got some short corners and scored 3 of them. No need to dwell and all that.

Final score:

Harpenden 2 - St Albans 5

We go into slip week in a bit of a lull, but , strict instructions from Coach Bob to get fitter and not pass the ball to the other team has given us key focusses for our next game. Oh and be better at short corners…

Player of the match - Donna

Dunce of the day - Jack Reed for injuring Yas at a time where we really don’t need any more injuries

Admin request - Can Russell Timms turn off notifications from Teamo that come in straight after the match asking if you’ve won? It’s really not helping… 

Squad: Gemma, Karen, Kelsey, Isla , Yas, Amelie, Donna, Bryony, Lily, Nat, Laura, Sophia, Emma