Ladies 1s: Epsom 1 – 2 East Grinstead
The opening game of the season did not go according to plan, with the Ladies 1’s losing 2-1 to a strong East Grinstead side.
The first glitch came when we realised that, due to a slight organisational oversight (never trust a student to remember anything important!), we had no balls or bibs for the warm up. Appropriate fines having been awarded, and the warm up muddled through, the game got underway. Despite the rocky warm up, Epsom got off to a strong start, keeping the tempo high and were rewarded with a short corner early on. Although Claude’s initial deflection was saved, Paula calmly took the ball from the goalie’s pads and put it into the roof of the net to put Epsom up 1-0. Epsom held out against a tough response from East Grinstead, and went into half time with a well defended lead.
East Grinstead started the second half strongly however, and Epsom were unable to sustain their lead. A string of short corners in the second half led to Epsom conceding 2 goals. East Grinstead kept the pressure up, with Epsom being unable to equalise. A brilliant performance from Swighty in goal managed to keep the score at only 2-1, and led to an almost unanimous MOM result (whether or not Swighty voted for herself is still in question….)
Next week, Epsom host Maidenhead for their first home game (and hopefully first points on the board!). Thanks to Kingy for stepping in as coach for the day despite the early meet time down at EG, and especially for his inspirational team talk!