On a ‘ferry’ blustery day, more suited to flying a kite than playing hockey, Waterside played their last match before the Christmas break, hoping to make it 10 wins out of 10. However another mid morning/late afternoon long haul journey and with 9 players the odds looked against the ‘Siders. Luckily some schmoozing from Alex meant that an umpire was found from Aldershot & Farnham at the last minute and Waterside took to the pitch with 10!
The opposition started the stronger of the two teams with a couple of quick short corners but failed to score. Waterside then won themselves a short corner. A good strike from Cherry brought a save from the goalie and led to a scramble in the D with Marie narrowly missing.

Aldershot then had a spell of possession which led to another scramble in the D and with Waterside failing to clear the ball, Aldershot took the lead.   

However this seemed to rally Waterside, who then went onto to dominate the rest of the half. Some fine play upfront by Kate, Alex and Marie led to Abi scoring from close range, 1-1! Then an amazing 10 or more quickfire passes by the team resulted in Marie narrowly missing a contender for goal of the month. Marie was again unlucky not to score following an run and pass through by Emma.

Buoyed by Coolio’s half time team talk and a sugar high from Fruit Pastilles, Waterside started the second half strongly. A quickly taken free hit by Emma, who passed to an unmarked Marie in the D who fired a shot past the goalie, 1-2 to Waterside and taking Marie’s goals for the season to 10!     

Waterside had chances to increase their lead, spreading the play out wide and some fine defence splitting passes which unfortunately did not lead to a third goal. Aldershot and Farnham were thwarted in their attempts to build an attack by a high defensive line and fine tackling/interceptions by Dudley, Nat, Cherry and Coolio.

However as the game drew to a conclusion and with Waterside beginning to tire, there were a few squeaky bum moments as Aldershot pressed for an equaliser. One in particular where ‘twinkle toes’ Tina came storming out from the goal to clear a ball with some footwork that wouldn’t look out of place on Strictly, definitely a 10 from Len! Unfortunately in the tussle with the forward, the ball broke free to Aldershot and they looked certain to score…. fortunately Cherry was there to make a goal line clearance to safety! The drama continued with Aldershot winning some short corners, could they claim a last ditch equaliser? No they couldn’t, with a fine save from Tina and pressure from the defence ensuring they didn’t.

The final whistle blew and there it was, the tenth win in 10 games with 10 players for Waterside! A well fought and well deserved victory for Waterside, a big pat on the pack for everyone. POM today was Emma.

Have a fab Christmas and lets carry on winning in the New year!