Match Reports: City 2 and 3 Do Well Despite Double Defeat

City 2 vs Oxford Uni 2 - 08.03.015

12-10 Loss

City 2 went down to a resurgent Oxford Uni 2 on Sunday afternoon at St Greg's. It needs to be said that Uni 2 are a stronger proposition this season than they have been for some time, as the fact that they won three out of three on Sunday testifies (including a rout of an uncharacteristically lacklustre Abingdon 3 side in their final match). The fact they had four Uni 1 players in the team also helped!

In this context, we can take a degree of satisfaction from keeping pace with them for much of the match (we won the second half 3-2!). At one point we were four behind, so to go into the last quarter of the game still with a prospect of victory is definitely something to be happy with. Uni's boys were big, strong and quick (a real handful in other words) and the better opportunities came with our girls at the posts, Hannah, Charlotte and Fi doing particularly well in winning collects.

Scorers: Simon (3), Niall (2), Jim (2), Charlotte, Fi, Rich

MVP: Niall: Having already played for the firsts, he bagged two goals and defended well against the wiles of Dave Sinclair.

- Match report by Simon

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City 3 vs Oxford Uni 2 - 08.03.015

12-5 Loss

Next up to bat for City were 'Team Awesome', and this they were also up against a strong Uni line-up that had previously beaten City 2. But that doesn’t matter to Team Awesome!

I suspect people came off the court feeling disappointed to lose, but no one should have done. It was by far the best performance I’ve seen from Team Awesome this season. Yes, it’s great to beat teams like Isis 2 (it’s always nice to win!), but to put in a performance like I saw on Sunday (against very strong opposition) is the real testament to Team Awesome’s progress as individuals and as a team.

The biggest difference versus a few weeks ago was the speed of movement and passing in attack.  We created opportunities, scored some great goals, and looked a threat throughout.  Michelle showed nerves of steel to score a penalty as well (no celebration though!). We were also a lot more solid in defence, and didn’t give away many cheap goals. Uni had to work hard for their win.  

To give further context, five of the Uni players also played in  the Uni 1 team that drew 9-9 with Farnborough in Division 1, so restricting them to 12 is good. Let’s build on this and go out and get a win against Abingdon 3 next week. Special mention to Theo by the way for getting up and dusting himself off after being knocked to the ground not once, but twice, by aerial uni players while trying to take a free pass. It’s a bold way to win penalties!

Goals: Michelle (1), Becca (1), Rich M (1), Ian B (1), Laura (1)

MVP: Laura

- Match report by Gaz