The Team go Batty after Trooping on to another Win

A CLUB WIN!

On a warm autumn day, we all arrived in good time without our usual leadership duo and without some of our new squad. Everyone made themselves known to each other early doors. Nicky took this to new levels whilst exiting the toilet as she slid straight out the cubicle into Hannah. (not one for hugs!) the only sensible ones in the changing room were Rose and Little Hannah taking in the match fees and recording names with such professionalism. Actually, they were so good at it Bazi ended up having too much money. Bet that never happens in the Glassbrooke household.

Seen as the previous weeks warm up had got us ready so well its only right to repeat it. However, giving Brian more time to warm us up seems to result in him becoming particularly run happy. Making us sprint the 25yrds a number of times whilst he shouted “Be Quick!”

Brian set the tactics for the game and we all set up ready for them. On Saturday 14th October, we woke up with determination and this was the moment we had to show it.
Whitley started off quick. We started off on the back foot. We were quiet and second to the ball for the first 10mins. Whitely attacked down the wings and as they did tackles were used to slow them down and stop their momentum. One in particular stop the girl altogether as bodies collided and Fi fell to the floor. Meanwhile the Whitley player carried on and dribbled the ball off the pitch and then fell over. If she didn’t already know she had fallen over on her own, Hannah was there to just to remind her! “You just fell over!” A card was nearly dealt to FI even though she was 3m from the girl. She got away with it this time.

As time went on we got used to the new set up Newcastle started to move through the gears. We started to become much more vocal on the pitch and with it our movement, passing and commitment started to build.
Whitely had no chance of getting through the middle as Jabba and her three trusty sidekicks, Nicky, Lou and Beth defending superbly throughout the match. They began to target the wide areas of the pitch but we held our positions and moved to cover the areas. As they moved the ball back and fought Newcastle jumped on them grabbing the ball and breaking at speed towards the d. the ball was taken down the right and passed to the middle to then be reverse hit into the goal! 1-0! An extremely slick executed goal against the run of play changed everything.

Whitley had their attacks too, hitting the ball off the crossbar on one occasion.
The defence held strong and the movement from the entire team was incredible! Well… it was great movement until Bazi was shouting so loud and fast, “Nicky step left!” that Nicky couldn’t recognise her name or Bazi’s voice. So as any sane player would do Nicky just ignored Bazi and carried on standing right! No one puts Nicky on the left!

In the second half, we moved as team like forwards on a football table machine with the bar in the middle being moved left and right by a player at the end. But it worked. Natasha, Fran, Libby and Emma all ran their socks off! The opposition couldn’t move the ball passed us and as they began to tier we jumped on them at pace and created lots of opportunities. Everyone worked tirelessly to cover the gaps on the pitch. They were becoming frustrated and started to hit the ball through. With one ball at head high at Nicky so she deflected the ball with stick at head height. This created an interesting exchange between the umpires! No need to see each other they can just talk on the microphones. Let’s just say Nicky did not get the free hit!
We defended well and Abi jumped on a slow ball from the Whitley Bay defence then passed it to Fran who hit the ball goal-wards to be saved. The ball rebounded off towards Abi who smashed it home! 2-0
Brian spent all game shouting at the side of the pitch, generally using the correct name of the player but always encouraging us to do better. Towards the end Hannah was encouraging Lou to push up only to be promptly told to not move any further forward by Brian. So as the defence held their positions Rachel Farrah felt to the need to become the rebel of the team and against all advice, she went off up the pitch! Whitely carried on attacking and threatened with a short corner towards the end. Bazi threw herself on the floor to save the short corner and manged to win us a 16. Another interesting decision. Gill complimented Fi on her improvement of tackles and told Pink Sox after the game that she should have blown Bazi for taking out Heidi but then agreed that a little hip action never hurt anyone!
What a game! What a team! What a club!

This weekend just shows why this club is so fantastic. Several members of the 2nd team stepped up to play for us this weekend and boy did we need them. They played for us. They played for the club. They played as a team. And what a team they made us become.
As the wonderful Babe once said “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” Well… in this case you can’t beat 14 players who play as a team and as a team, they never give up!

Thank you all for making this one of the best clubs to play in! In the end I couldn't think of better way to hang out with friends and spend a Saturday!