| Match Report |
St Neots opened their Girls U16s account with a convincing 5–1 win against Towcester Ladies, played in driving rain and with the finest sporting spirit displayed by both sides. Saints went down early on against the run of play, when Towcester’s star player cut through the centre to slot it into the bottom right-hand corner. Undeterred, Saints continued pressing and eventually Summer Payne, a warrior of the wing, who would countless times best the defence but reap far less than she sowed, levelled the score. Then came half-time, which was followed by a performance that one would only have expected from a team that had been playing together for years. Not so this team, with ages ranging from 13 to two weeks shy of 16, from four different schools, they came together for the first time but ten minutes before the start of the match. Injury and illness had put paid to carefully laid plans, and last-minute call-ups saw the median age plummet, but this didn’t seem to matter as the second half witnessed Saints’ sustained pressure finally paying off. Charlie Churms saw her busyness in defence and attack being rewarded with the first of her two goals. And this was the start of a change in gear, courtesy of the senior players. Lotti Knights, deserved player of the match, began to run the opposition’s midfield ragged, her coruscating runs a tribute to the art of dribbling, as she sent cross after cross to essay the opposition’s D, her one goal small beer to the contribution she made all afternoon. And then Eleanor Pybus, immense at the back, stepped forth into the fray and opened up Towcester. True quality can never hide itself on a hockey pitch, and her linking up with Lottie, Charlie and Summer was the undoing of an excellent, committed Towcester defence. The many short corners Saints won had garnered little save a sense of anti-climax, but in open play, girls who were but strangers an hour before linked up in clever, mature play. And let us not forget the younger players. Anna Price, fierce, brave and showing the cool head of a 16-year-old, all the more impressive for her 13 years, and another contender for player of the match: Sophie Faulkner, skilled, committed, indefatigable both in attack and defence; sent crashing into the turf early on in the match, she shook it off to make the midfield her personal fiefdom. We could name them all: Holly Harper, consistent and dependable; Sophie Hawkes, defending beyond her years; Katie Churms, showing the world that her sister is no one-off; Ellie Bettsworth, her scrambled goal proof of consistent excellent field positioning and backing up play; and the goalkeeper, Amy Harley, though troubled but rarely, ensured Saints could concentrate on scoring goals and not defending draws; and finally the subs, Callie Wicks and Mia Perry, attentive to the wise counsel of the sidelines, slotting into this excellent side not as young, inexperienced subs but as the two final pieces of a jigsaw that came together to give St Neots a welcome win against a good opposition.
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