Outclassed at the Uni

University of Birmingham where people come to further their education or in the Sils case chase a team of superbly fit athletes around the pitch hoping to beat them on their own patch.

Not to be over awed Sils started at a fast pace taking the game to Birmingham pushing them back into their 25 and forcing a short corner within the first few minutes although this was easily dealt with by their defence. This woke Birmingham up and they were soon upping their game with fast counter attacks initially down the middle until they found that this stalled on the Sils defensive unit as Kate Huntington was in fine form blocking everything coming her way. The midfield was working well and without some of their more experience members it provided the chance for Georgina Dalby and Tamara Majevadia to help Samantha Cooper in stifling the opposition and feeding the willing runners up front.

The fast counter attacks by Birmingham were at times causing some concern as they overloaded the defence quickly when advancing down the flanks in numbers but it wasn’t until 30 minutes into the game that the first goal was conceded through a well worked move from close in allowed the ball to be hammered home. Despite the setback all was going well until Cooper’s long standing injury started to flare up and she had to come off to resolve the problem whilst she was on the main Birmingham playmaker had been kept quiet but with the additional room afforded to her she was soon orchestrating the play and two more goals were added in quick succession. If that was not enough almost on the stroke of half time a further Birmingham attack resulted in the goal of the match, as their player was shepherded to the top of the D there was just enough room for her to unleash an unstoppable reverse stick shot at pace high into the opposite corner of the net leaving everyone wrong footed and slightly envious of the execution.

With Jessica Jecketts stepping up to the post of Head Coach for the day the half time talk rallied everyone and Sils slowly got heads back on track. The young strike force pushed Birmingham all the way but couldn’t find a way past the competent centre backs and with a full bench to call upon Birmingham were able to refresh their players at will to keep the tempo and pressure high. As the second half went on Sils were reduced to one substitute so couldn’t really be expected to match the intensity of their opponents but as Majevadia was moved up front midway through the second half a few alternatives were happening with her added pace at the crucial time of the game and her anticipation at a short corner almost clawed a goal back as her stick deflection clattered into the post. But despite a valiant effort Birmingham added two more goals in the second half to take their final tally to 6.

It was hard on the girls to go down 0:6 but credit must go to Birmingham in that they were all well crafted and executed goals and that they won’t have to face players of that calibre every week. Not to be too down heartened it was a very good battling performance that took the game to Birmingham and who for a long time where facing a game in which they had to battle against a side who just wouldn’t give in. In context Birmingham were fortunate to receive six junior internationals joining them in the summer and this of course had a filtering effect on the other sides resulting in some of today’s opponents normally having played in the higher leagues so good credit to Sils all-round. The big plus is that compared to other neighbouring County leagues Warwickshire is probably one of the strongest leagues around at the moment with sides promoted to the Midlands tiers all progressing well and this does have an effect throughout the Division will all games being significantly harder than they used to be.

MoM: Kate Huntington, another outstanding defensive play blocking all attacks that came down the middle as well as confidently bringing the ball out of defence to start the attacks rolling again.

DoD: For once everyone behaved themselves and no one was awarded this prized accolade.