On Saturday 18th February, Berkhamsted ladies 2nd team battled against the driving cold rain and wind to secure another excellent victory of the season.  After an early start, our front line attack of Poppy Lloyd, Paula Wilson and academy debut player - Melissa Morton took to the field from the start and we soon went in to the lead with our first goal from Paula Wilson.  

That gave the team a spark of confidence and with our midfield players Claudia Jones, Eli MacDonald and Lucy Wicks constantly on their toes and feeding the ball through to the forward line, Paula soon slotted another one home followed by a further three more before the half time whistle to put us firmly ahead on 5-0! 

 

The second half proved to be more demanding with a number of breaks through from the Leighton Buzzard attack but the experience and firm defence of Liz Holderness, Chops, Angie Hall and Jo Fisher broke down the play and constantly re-fed the ball back to midfield.  Phoebe Toms in goal, played a confident and strong game, making some excellent charges out from goal to break down any shots and firmly kicking the ball out to the sides for our defenders to scoop up and move the ball on down the wings to our attacking circle. 

 

The Leighton Buzzard defence were more determined in the second half to protect their goal and many scrambles in the circle resulted in a number of penalty corners.  A penalty flick saw Liz Holderness get our first goal in the second half. Berkhamsted continued to dominate the play and Poppy finally struck our seventh goal home from a perfect penalty corner routine and slotting it past the goalie from the left post.

 

Player of the match went to the outstanding debut game for Melissa Morton who at only 13, played with such maturity and skill on the right wing.  She was fearless at tackling and played an excellent attacking game with the support of Eli at right midfield.  Everyone played a great game especially passing the ball around the team and using everyone on the pitch. A great game and a great team!