GONE WITH THE WIND…
TAWA 7  – BNU PRETENDERS 3 (1st August)

Hmmm – the gale force winds didn’t really work in our favour today.... it was cold, wet, VERY windy, and there was no cancellation… (As opposed to last weekend’s decision to bump us off the pitch for another team when the conditions were PERFECT!!!).  Unfair…. Maybe.  But, we sucked it up and got stuck in… damn, we’re good.

Truth be told, the other side only turned up with half a kit, so they borrowed some tops and bottoms and ended up looking like they’d stepped out of a jumble sale with multi-coloured shorts and mis-matched tops…  We, of course, looked pretty damn hot in our super clean, matching outfits with go-faster stripes down the sides…  [Apparently it’s just not enough to look good… urgh].

They also lulled us into a bit of a false sense of security by telling us they were short of a few players so they’d roped in some rugby girls…  Unfortunately, it would appear that rugby players can be pretty handy with a round ball too (as we learnt the hard way….). 

It all started off pretty well – we had the wind with us for the first half (pardon me…) and saw a lot of action for the first half hour.  Jules wasted no time by putting away a bouncy ball (to take us one up), but the glory was short-lived when they broke away and got an equaliser… then Jo had a great run up the wing and launched a precision-perfect cross (through the legs of a defender) to Jules who slotted it past the keeper. 2-1.   But, once more, the other team hadn’t read the script and got another equaliser… aargh. 

Although disheartened, we still felt in control… but it went rapidly downhill from here.  One minute before the half-time whistle, we gave away our first handball of the game (I thought they were supposed to be the rugby players????).  A loopy shot over our wall and into the left hand corner was beyond Toni’s reach and saw Tawa take the lead for the first time in the game.  Bugger. 

And so the whistle went, and it was time for some tough love from coach Daniel… Apparently there was some “good, bad and very very ugly” stuff going on.  (Who said we were ugly?!!? At least we were wearing the right clothes....).

The second half meant that Tawa had the wind with them this time… and unfortunately, they made better use of it than we did (with at least a couple of wind-assisted goals).  Then we decided to do a bit more handballing… and the other side converted another free kick and a penalty, and by now, the score-line was starting to look a bit demoralising.  Oh, and did I mention it was cold too?  And I’d forgotten my gloves (although, I think we’ve already established that wardrobe was one of our stronger points on the day… ;-)

To finish on a high note, here are some positives from the game…

• Linda decided to resort to some desperate ‘double agent’ type tactics by trying to take one of their corners for them, but Tawa were onto her (I think her outfit might have given her away…?).

• Then, just as we thought the final whistle was gonna blow, we made our last attacking move with a mid-field surge from Jo, laying the ball off to Jess, who made a spectacular run and kept a cool head, firing the ball into the bottom left hand corner. (7-3 Woohoo!).

Never mind – next time girls… remember to always dress nicely, keep your boots clean, and I’m sure we’ll show those University girls how it’s done…

Jules