WELLINGTON UTD 0 – BNU PRETENDERS 3 (Sun 4 April)

Once, twice, three times a Jonesy… :-)

The first game of the season opened up (as did the heavens) on the 4th April with a soggy away game just up the road against Wellington United.

All in all, we put up a solid performance against a reasonably novice team and were rewarded with a resounding win of 3-0 (woo-hoo!). And, I’m a modest kind of girl, so I’ll make this brief… I got a hattrick – yippee…!!! ;-)

We’d had an extra hour in bed the night before, so a well-rested team took to the pitch. It didn’t take long for Linda and Jess to settle themselves into the squad, and everyone quickly adjusted to their allocated positions (apparently 3-5-1 is the new 4-4-2!). Highlights include Naomi W, Jacs and Shazza running all over the place, Jenny M back from maternity leave (has she really had a baby???) and Anita and Kirsten chasing down Wellington Utd’s nifty number 12 (fortunately she was in goal for the first half). And last but certainly not least, Toni was as solid as ever in goal – not backward in coming forward, closing down angles and intimidating those attackers… very cool!

Oh, and did I mention the hattrick??? Let me talk you through it…

• Just before half time, a scramble in the goal mouth saw the goalkeeper and defenders desperately chasing a high bouncing ball which Jules took advantage of, slotting a left-footed half-volley into the empty goal mouth.

• After half-time, there was lots of attacking play from Brooklyn. It all paid off with Jacs tapping the ball into the box to Jules who passed it across the front of the keeper into the bottom right corner (off the post, just to keep us guessing!).

• The final ‘piece de resistance’ saw us bring the ball up the wing via Kate, Meg and Jacqui, then into the box, and a quick turn on the ball from Jules followed by a spectacular lob into the top right corner – result!

All in all, it was a sight to behold – even the coach didn’t have a bad word to say about us – just his usual encouraging self… ☺ Bring on the rest of the season!

Jules