Sils overpowered by strong Hampton side

And so after an eventful season Sils were faced with the last match of the campaign against near neighbours Hampton who were riding high in the league and with both sides safe there was the chance for both sides to give their youngsters a chance. For Sils this was nothing new as once again a number of the more regular players were unavailable for numerous reasons. However this brought new challenges with the realisation that there were gaping holes in the side with a lack of defenders through injury and the added need for players to slot into unfamiliar positions.

But Sils started brightly and were holding their own for much of the opening minutes and even managed to avoid turning the ball over as promptly as they normally do…

However, Hampton were starting to find their form and although their star 20+ goal striker was attempting to find the back of the net on every occasion she was thwarted at every attempt but this left to others becoming unmarked due to the attention afforded to her and despite a full stretch dive by goalkeeper Joanne Brett on 15 minutes the ball just squeezed in through a ruck of players at the far post. Sils rallied and pushed forward but as attacks broke down they were often caught on the counter attack with gaps appearing between the midfield and defence which were being exploited on a regular basis by Hampton. Georgina Jones was starting to shine in an unfamiliar midfield position and was seen to be tackling hard on a number of occasions as well as managing to assist the youngsters in attack.

The second half followed much of the same path as the first with lots of endeavour but no real finishing product and whilst shots were made on goal the follow up was not quite intensive enough to ensure a goal. The highlight being the post being hit from the impressive Jones and the frequent mazy runs by the sorcery of Ruth Dovey. But with the defence working overtime and with Joanne Brett and Claire Robinson combining to cover each other and plug the gaps in the defence as they started to appear through the inexperience around them Hampton were able to add two more goals to their tally finishing up as 3:0 winners.

It was refreshing to find that the youngsters coming through from the 2’s and 3’s are not too far away from making a regular contribution to the team and as the sun goes down on the end of another season, with the transformation almost complete, it is hoped that all the players take the time to recover and resign for next season to make a proper challenge on the title. This season has been particularly hard in that out of the 12 in the squad today only 4 finished the last game of last season. There have been 4 pregnancies, numerous long term injuries as well as 4 more leaving for other clubs or new adventures so quite an upheaval and it is only hoped that maybe there is a more stable start to the new campaign.

MoM and DoD: A joint award and probably going to the only player who could manage this Miss Georgina Jones, back to her best having to revert to an unfamiliar midfield role and giving an accomplished display of tackling, support and attacking. However, G wouldn’t be G without the odd bit of merriment to go round and so quite innocently asking out loud “so how many players are there in a hockey team” and to compound it further as the defence broke down another attack and played the ball out to Georgina to start the counter attack guess who was just stood there in her own little world attempting to calm her flowing locks, the one and only G, bless her.