BUFC get a kick up the backside!

By Tish

BUFC Ladies headed out to Langdorp on Sunday knowing that they faced a tough match against a team currently second in the league (with games in hand) and going for trophies on 3 fronts. Despite having played at this pitch every year since we joined the league it took us a while, a couple of detours and a few phone calls to find the pitch, which Amos felt was far too small (although can a football pitch ever be too small ;o) and Hils felt was far too close to a river for the ball to be safe. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the only wildlife was outside and that the changing rooms were fly free this time and even had handy shelves in the showers a changing rooms touch that Nekker could learn from. The weather was perfect for a game of footie, the opposition were smoking (as in rokers, not hot ;o) and the ref looked like he might know the rules so everything looked set for a good game. And that's kind of where I'd like to leave this match report really, because the game turned out to be anything but perfect.

BUFC ladies started the match well with some great interceptions and some good pressure on the big strong Langdorp players. However, from early on in the game Langdorp were looking to get the ball passed back to their no. 4 midfielder and for her to pass it on quickly to the skillfull and speedy no. 6 and 10. This meant that Jackie came under a lot of pressure but was managing to get the ball out wide to Josine to pass up the wing where Fabbi was doing a great job of holding off the Langdorp giants and starting some attacking moves. Unfortunately it was Langdorp who scored first. This wasn't enough to make the BUFC heads drop though as after this goal BUFC went on to have perhaps their most pressing piece of possession in the game with Langdorp pinned back into their own half. Caz and Hils worked hard to break up any pieces of play Langdorp put together and Ana got stuck in against some defenders twice her size, frustrating them enough to earn one of them a yellow card. Langdorp always looked dangerous on the break though with some speedy runners and the rest of the team moving up the pitch fast to help them out and when they went on to score their second goal heads started to drop and their third knocked the wind out of BUFC's sails. BUFC were playing well in patches, but never quite getting it together as a team. Harsh I know but we never really looked like scoring.

Half time saw Amy's fresh legs come onto the pitch to help the defence whilst Tish's sore feet exited. Unfortunately Langdorp continued where they left off as did BUFC - too much being on the back foot and respect given to the opposition and some moments of brilliance followed by some moments of comedy football. So I'm not going to focus on any of their 5 goals (yes 5 - some good, some not so good), or all the times that Jackie put her body in the way of danger to block the ball, or the despairing tones of Amos as she asked what was going wrong, or any of the filth that came out of Gibbo's mouth ;o) but on the one outstanding moment for BUFC. After a couple of attempts at pushing forward through the Langdorp defence by Ana, Ale managed to get stuck in and tried to scramble the play up around the centre circle. As she tried to spidey turn and go the ball was robbed by one of the Langdorp players who passed it out to the left. Josine just managed to get enough of a touch on it to direct it into Gibbos path who booted a lovely cross up to Fabbi who was coming in from left wing. Fabbi took a touch and got it past their last defenders, and then held her nerve to dribble the ball into the box and calmly finished it past the keeper (although it has to be said that her goal celebration wasn't quite so calm!).

So it was a bit of a lesson for us - you can't take points off the better teams in the league by being complacent and everyone needs to play well at the same time and to trust in the other members of the team. But that's not to take anything away from Langdorp who were a very good team and maybe it's not so bad to have a kick up the backside from time to time, especially before we face Aarschot next week where we know that if we play well we can get the points. And we weren't all complete losers - Gibbo managed to be queen of the pool table in the bar afterwards when nameless team members stayed out to help her party as if it was a Friday night (kebab on the way home included)!

Goal: Fabbi (Assist: Gibbo)
Man of the Match: 1) Fabbi; 2) Gibbo, Jackie, Pauline; 3) Hils, Caz