16-6 Win
Last year, Oxford United was narrowly beaten by Gloucester at home. However, after the successes of Bristol tournament, Oxford City was looking to play hard and start this season's regional league campaign with a win. Frank had travelled even further than our opposition to coach this opening match -- and, due to traffic, arrived before them.
Posts were in place. The ref was ready. All that remained was to follow Frank's plan.
We started well, slowly we made our way to 3-0 up in tense first quarter. The rest of the half saw goals from Dan, Paul and Ruth. Gaz held his ground in feed and got pushed through to the ground at one point for his trouble. Despite the whiplash he got up and played on. Pete slotted away two penalties with ease and we ended the half 6-1 up.
At the start of the second half a Gloucester penalty had narrowed the gap to just four goals. Claire had come on and responded with Alice to get a quick two goals. Rich subbed on to his regional début and used his height to secure numerous collects. Becca used her pace as part of the excellent defence and we won the ball back several times as Gloucester tried to pass out of defence giving us extra time in attack. Gaz has some exceptionally near chances but his dancing behind the post, to pull his marker out the game, took priority.
Gloucester kept trying to attack, scoring the occasional goal, but Ruth's gravity-defying long shots dominated the end of the game. Full time saw City victorious by a massive 16-6.
Thank you to Frank for the inspirational coaching. Special mention to Paul who had a great match against very difficult opposition but player of the match has to go to Ruth.
Scorers - Ruth (5), Alice (3), Claire (2), Dan (2), Pete (2), Paul (2)
- Match report by Jo
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