Last minute goal trips up the 2s

Southend & Benfleet 2nd XI - 0
Chelmsford 4th XI - 1

The Rocky Theme Tune could be heard in many of the S&B’s heads walking out onto the pitch on Saturday against Chelmsford. The squad were aware that it would be a tough match, but were ready to rise to any challenge presented. As the whistle blew S&B were determined to gain as much possession of the ball as possible. However, it would also seem that Chelmsford had the same tactic.

With play very much up and down continually for most of the first half, S&B’s defence line were standing solid, possibly reciting some Lord Of The Rings – ‘You shall not pass!’ S&B’s forwards on the other hand were testing Chelmsford defence, with a few nail biting moments from Claire King and Lily Cole who almost found the Chelmsford backboard after daring their goalkeeper to come off her line before sneaking the ball round and across the goal only to be stopped at the last moment by a defender on the line.

It was very much ‘second verse, same as the first’ for the second half. Captain Louise Mersack made a few tactical decisions with the positioning of a few players, but this sadly didn’t change the score line. Chelmsford seemed to have made tactical decisions too and appeared to be rolling their subs even more in the second half. The result of which meant that the S&B super backline were being tested even more in this half. However, as much as Chelmsford appeared to want to score, they were no match for the Solid Nicola Ellis, Michelle Arnold and Charley Edwards. With a display of dazzling stick manoeuvres and daring runs on short corners, the shots on goal were swiftly taken away from the danger zone and back up the pitch for the S&B forwards to play with. Unfortunately within the last 2 minutes of play Chelmsford gained their second wind and found a now tiring S&B defence easy to wiggle around before firing a shot into the left hand side of the S&B goal.

Final score S&B 0 – Chelmsford 1

POM Goalkeeper Katie Keppel for her cracking determination to keep Chelmsford at bay