Long Buckby 1st XI 0 - 2 Old Silhillians 1st XI

Long Buckby 1st XI 0 (0) - (0) 2 Old Silhillians 1st XI

Goalscorers: Caro Kappes, Annabel Dalby

First league game back and an away trip to Rugby School to play the lowest ranked team Long Buckby.

Games like this can always turn out to be harder than the league positions suggest, and so it proved. With the side without several faces (even though a wall size version of Clara greeted many of the players when they arrived!) a bare 12, including Caro who had only had 5 hours sleep after a 12 hours journey took to the field. The warm-up went well, and the Sils started strongly.

However, as was evidenced by the home team celebrating making it to 0-0 at half-time, Long Buckby had set out with one intention, and that was to try and defend in great numbers and look for occasional breaks.

To their credit, the home team defended very well, with the giant keeper making up for any gaps Sils were able to create by making several good saves, noticeably from Lauren Hobday, the usual Kappes reverse stick strike, and a number of other efforts by Sophie Boyle, Priya Majedvadia and Libby Shepherd.

The Sils were frustrated by being goal-less at half-time, but knew that if they kept playing well, goals would come.

As it happened, both goals came from slightly sloppy penalty corners, which had been won by the marauding Ruth Dovey down the right, and both were fairly similar in style. The ball got played towards goal and before the goalkeeper could clear, one of the Sils attacking players was able to latch onto the ball, spin expertly and score from close range. The first goal went to Caro Kappes, and the second to Annabel Dalby.

Jo Brett and Hattie Evans marshalled the defence well, with Jo being called upon to make a very important near post save at 1-0, but other than that, no major scares.

3 points, and solid performance, particularly by the joint players of the match Ruth Dovey and Hattie Evans. With the 3 teams in 2nd, 3rd and 4th all losing, Sils now hold an 8 point lead at the top with second placed Nuneaton to play in a couple of weeks. An exciting few weeks ahead, with the Sils continuing to develop their structures and individual elements to set them up for a strong finish to the year.