Sils lose out to solitary goal

On a drab rainy day Sils travelled to Sutton to take on their 4’s. A slight reshuffle in tactics saw Kate Huntington pushed up into a more attacking role to provide additional speed and guile going forward with several forays into the last third with shots narrowly going wide. The midfield engine room was working well with Samantha Cooper and Ruth Dovey finding space to move the ball around and feed the twin attack threat of Naomi Ennis and Tamara Majevadia on either wing who were having space to move in and get behind the Sutton defence allowing the midfield to move up unopposed. To counter this Sutton reverted to their usual ploy of a big hit out of defence to their equally enthusiastic forwards and Sils were caught out on more than on occasion although the defence coped well initially. The game was very open with chances being made at either end and although Sils had more of the ball Sutton were looking more dangerous and frustratingly were finding their forwards unmarked in good positions.

Joanne Brett in goal had another good game with her reputation on the circuit further enhanced with another penalty flick superbly turned around the post, but there is a lot of practice this season with at least six having been awarded against them so far.

The turning point in the game came with a minute to go to half time when Georgina Dalby, who has learnt well from her indisputable mentor Ruth Dovey throughout the season, was deemed to have incurred one too many infringements, hard to believe, and not even the angelic smile couldn’t escape the justice of Umpire Jono who green carded her for the first time in her senior career, for two minutes.
The half ended at stalemate with both sides having chances although Sils were slowly gaining in possession. The second half started and Sutton were on the offensive first taking advantage of the extra player and make it tell they did as yet another shot came in and with Dalby still off the pitch a deflection off a stick saw the ball hit the backboard for Sutton to take the lead a good two minutes into the half. Not until after the goal had been scored was the diminutive destroyer waived back on. Sils were momentarily rocked by this and heads went down until they composed themselves and started to get back into the game. Chances were made and Ennis and Majevadia were still finding space to charge down the wings but even the luck of the Irish evaded them and Sils fell into their own trap again of trying to play in the style of their opponents and attempted passes were smashed down the middle in the vain hope of finding a white shirt.

When the ball was moved out to the wings fast attacks were raised and chances created although deflections were narrowly missed and shots that were made didn’t have enough venom to cause the Sutton defence any real problems. Penalty corners were traded at either end but there was no further score and Sils were unlucky to come away with nothing after a much better performance than in recent weeks.

So all that is needed is for everyone to have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and to perhaps find a new Ally Taft along the way.

MoM: Ali Leeke who worked tirelessly in defence blocking shots and thwarting a never ending tide of attackers.

DoD: Georgina Dalby, for getting caught and green carded.