It was a misty Saturday morning, the temperature was much warmer than the last couple of weeks, and we took to the pitch ready to play a nice game of hockey. The supporters were lined up cheering us on – Katie , Esther and Elodie– and it all started well. There was a great moment when Esther’s dog thought he might help out by trying to distract the opposition by running on the pitch to attempt to steal the ball!There was a lot of end to end play on a very slippery, bumpy pitch. They had some good attacking players and put us under a lot of pressure from the starting whistle. There was great defensive work at the back and some great kicking clearances from Tina in goal. The forwards had some great chances but that ball would not go in the back of the goal! And when it did it was disallowed. The injuries were plentiful with some high balls and Abby made a great stop with her knee and very quickly developed an extra knee cap. She came off for a while but was soon back causing trouble for their defence

The goals when they came seemed to come in quick succession and West Meon must have started to think they had a chance of winning as at one point they were 2-1 up. However we brought the score back to 2 all with some great work and penetrating runs from the forwards. Joey earned a well-deserved POM with some great runs through the centre. The temperature of the game started to rise and tempers began to flare but Waterside pushed back into the lead with a final 3rd goal which clinched victory.

We won but had to battle and pull together and work very hard in the second half. The closing stages of the match required some referee intervention to try to calm some players who were getting very animated and all-out war was avoided! It was a relief when the final whistle blew, not least for Alex who had the job of trying to keep the game under control!

So a bit of a tussle and probably the closest game of the season. The positives – we WON, woohoo, this is always the best answer to unsportsman like behaviour, and the sandwiches, tea and chocolate biscuits were all GREAT!

2 Goals from Becca and 1 from Joey, and some near misses from Marie, Jude and Emma just to name a few. WELL DONE Waterside.
By Gaynor Lesley Bowen