BUFC Ladies make it 4 in a row!

By Caragh O'Connor

There was a mixture of excitement and concern amongst the BUFC ladies as they gathered outside the Joyce for the first match of the New Year. There was a general feeling of enthusiasm (perhaps a little magnified for those experiencing a banana rush) due to the fact that it was the first match back since the 15th of December 9-0 victory ... but also serious apprehension because of the time that had passed without much exercise (apart from Maaike of course ;o) except for the odd walk from couch to fridge or crawl from pub to party, and due to how much they'd all scoffed and imbibed in that time.

But excitement definitely outweighed (excuse the expression ;o) the dread. Along they headed to the fields of Nekker to start the second half of the season. The changing room was quickly filled with the usual chatter and banter, though perhaps a little more polite than usual, and detoxes were described and other such good resolutions shared. It was like we'd never been apart ;o)

Captains pre-match chat, as inspiration as ever (eh-hem), and starting line up was announced:

Our very own super Welsh defender accepted to stand-in in between the posts as goal keeper; solid experienced defense; tall and nifty midfield - including the very welcome last minute confirmation from Dutch International super-midfielder (and fit from all the runs she did over the holidays ;o) that visibility and weather conditions would allow her to join us - fast, strong and skilled strike-force; and a loaded bench composed of a skilled virgin defender plus non-hunger super-sub striker; all meant the skip was confident with her squad for the week - points would be taken home!

Another welcome sight was the referee who was not over 60 and rather fit seeming and looked as if he might actually even keep up with us on the pitch. Welcome it was, but what wasn't welcome was the fact that obviously one of the Wakkers had moaned about our kit being somewhat similar (wha?! even the red on our kits were clearly different - someone must tell them they should use Arial to keep the colours looking as bright as the first day they were bought) and Captain-Caz rushed off to find Big Al to explain the problem. Unfortunately he'd already handed out all the spare jerseys and there were non left in any of the trunks. The only option the skip saw was to re-use the spare kit that the 2nd Vets had used...

After initial splutters of disgust the girls agreed to bear the smelly used shirts with assurance from Rach that they shouldn't be too sweaty coz she'd watched the 2nd Vets match and they didn't really run all that much! Winds were high and though covered by cloud at that point, the sun was low and could prove to be a bit of a nuisance; Captain was hoping the toss would go her way. They called heads and heads it was and they chose in BUFCs favour anyway - wind and sun behind them and with the kick off - result!

FIRST HALF: [aside: ..yep, almost a page of shite written and the match hasn't even started yet ;o)]

From the kick off BUFC Ladies showed the Wakkers that they meant business. Defense without too much action in the first 10 and all the ball being in the Wakkers' half. The first goal came in the first 5 minutes - with incessant BUFC pressure and grit Maaike got the ball to her feet, looked up and spotting (and hearing) Caz making a run, sent a perfect ball into the area. Caz managed to beat the defender and reached the ball nano-seconds before the keeper who got a hand to the ball but could only manage to fumble it towards the penalty spot where Lisa was in a great position to easily slot it into the back of the net. GOAL and 1-0!

BUFC continued as they'd started and the nifty Ale did her spidey trick to nab the ball from their kick off. Apart from one or 2 incidents of Cora screaming her head off for support as she was outnumbered on a counter-attack, the defense coolly passed the ball out of defense, or in those before mentioned danger moments put a strong boot in to hoof the ball out of play. One Wakker did manage to get through the defense and took a shot on target but it was no problem for the trusty safe hands of Amos who caught it solidly - it seems that her netball skills and catching practice over the break were showing their fruit!

In about the 15th minute some pressure came in from the right, they tried to clear it but it came to Tish's feet. Tish put a lovely ball down the line to Caz who picked it up but came faced with her defender. Ale called for it square and got the ball to her feet. She drove into the box, dribbled inside easily passing her defender, and looking up and noticing the keeper was hanging way over on the right took a precise left footed poke and placed the ball in the bottom left hand corner - GOAL and 2-0!

The rest of the half was 85% BUFC possession - Rach manning the defense brilliantly passing the balls out to the wings or to free players in the centre when she could, Gibbo and Lynz were doing a great job of talking loads and hassling any right wing drives that the Wakkers were attempting and Tish was getting in the way of their left winger who despite wearing a knee brace (trying to give us false sense of security) had a dangerous boot on her but Tish got in her way enough and she ended up going nowhere ;o).

In the midfield Lisa and Maaike, with good vision and height, anticipated well and won most of the balls that came from the goal kicks, holding the ball up and used the wings well to spread the game out! Fabbi battled really well on the left wing, always supported by Lynz and Maaike, and made a couple of dangerous drives into the box. Hils was also near at hand at those times and there were some nice combinations going on from the left. Tish, Caz and Ale were also weaving well and Caz had a couple of nice crosses into the box after out-witting her counterpart. These attacks and a nice shot from Hils just outside the box did force the keeper to make some crucial, if perhaps a little shaky, saves.

Amos on the other hand was far from shaky - assertively leaving the shots that were "going nowhere" and confidently picking up some straggling attempts from their tiring strikers. The only real chance (real with a spoon and a half of cheat) the Wakkers had was following a cross with 2 of their players who were in reality off-side, but the ref shook his head at our shouts, and the ball reached the edge of the box and was 50-50 between Rach and their tall number 6 attacking midfield player. Number 6 went in pretty solidly studs high and took Rach out, and with her competition injured on the ground, penetrated into the box and took a low placed shot into the right hand corner past Amos who could do nothing to stop her. 2-1 and defense were fuming at off-side not being called. But the girls moved on and continued applying the pressure til the last second of the first half.

HALF TIME:

Despite BUFCs less-than-usual fitness levels following the holidays, they still jogged off the pitch at half time with more puff and energy than the Wakkers. Half time talk was encouraging with a few pointers on things to improve (staying on their feet) and things that the ladies were executing well and should continue doing (closing down, passing and constructing). Skip told the subs to use the first 5-10 mins of the second half to warm up as they'd be coming on shortly after the whistle.

SECOND HALF:

Second half gave the expat-girls the initial kick off and again they imposed their game on the locals. This time the midfield dynamo tried sending a few balls down the middle for Hils or Ale to run on to. This shook their centre defender up and forced her to clear it out of play. The Wakkers did seem to try a little harder to force the attack on us, but between the 4 BUFC defenders most of their attempts were coolly controlled and diffused! One of Wakkers went so far as to injure herself on an attempt and ended up coming off and being substituted.

BUFC then made their 1st substitution clapping their youngest player Fabbi off after a great and persistent performance, and brought on Josine whose virgin match it was. Josine took on the challenge well and after a few mins to adjust got muddled in and hassled Wakkers right wing attack. Even though they did manage to win a corner or 2 neither were that dangerous: one went "nowhere", and the other Gibbo booted out of danger. Going nowhere was a theme for them as they also sent a well positioned free kick well over the bar - they could definitely have done more with it especially as Amos was shouting for a wall and 3 or 4 of the midfield-lasses were still discussing whether to do a wall or not.

Don't misunderstand, however and think that BUFC were being dominated - the above is to not appear biased and to not make it seem that we walked all over them. However the ladies always did appear the more confident and looked like they were going to win it from the 2nd minute of the match.

This might also have been false confidence, especially for one player, who thought that we were up 3-1 at half time and admits that she felt "relaxed" in the second half under the false sense of being 2 goals up. However being relaxed isn't necessarily a bad thing - and if it in any way is the reason for her scoring our 3rd goal I say let's all just relax from now on ;o).

Our 2nd substitution was made 15 mins into the second half. Skip was about to take herself off the pitch when left back Lynz complained of an injury on her foot - she said she could run but not tackle or dribble. Both those being pretty important for playing football (not to mention in defense) nudged Captain-Caz to change her decision and sub Lynz off, pull Josine back 1 to left back, Ale onto the left wing, and bring super-striking-sub Helen on up front to partner with Hils for the last 20. The fresh legs were definitely useful and after the initial adjustment (think there was only 1 dodgy attack from the Wakkers which they didn't manage to execute) BUFC piled the pressure back on forcing them to the error.

One such error was a deep BUFC throw on the right hand side. Tish stepped up to take the throw, Caz pulled in, and at that time Hils made a run and asked for the ball on the edge of the box and just inside the end-line. She held it up, defender on her back, kicked it up to get the height and then did a scissor kick over her head into the box. The ball descended into a cluster of people but came to Lisa who took it first time on the half-volley and slotted it sweetly past the keeper (on her near side and all - she totally wasn't expecting that) just inside the right hand post. GOAL GOAL GOAL GOAL GOAL GOAL GOAL GOAL GOAL (yep liked that one!!) ... 3-1 and the home crowd went wild. Well all except for Lisa's very own personal supporters who were heard saying that "they missed all the actions as they were up in the bar for all the goals" ;o)

After the 3rd goal, the rest of the team then relaxed, and they played the time through putting more pressure with a couple of close chances in their box with Hils and Hels both having some really nice chances to score, Maaike also finding good space, and Ale winning a free kick in a shootable position after driving towards the box from the left. Unfortunately Caz couldn't get enough height on it and it went straight to the keeper who didn't have to do much to protect her goal.

All round it was a solid performance and BUFC ladies were very happy coming off the pitch after the final whistle on a 4 match winning streak, and their Captain was very happy to see that even the 2 week break didn't effect the team's grit and determination! Well done ladies bring on KK!

MAN OF THE MATCH:
1st: List T
2nd: Rachael and Amos (joint)
3rd: Gibbo and Ale (joint)

GOALS:
1st: Lisa T (assist: Maaike/Caz)
2nd: Ale (assist: Caz)
3rd: Lisa T (assist: Hils)