On Thursday 17th April Grantham women made the long trek up the A1 to Morley with two TMs and no coach. Having beaten Morley women at home last month, this was an eagerly anticipated game. However, with only a team of eight, two over 18s and six U18s, player substitutions were going to be challenging for Grantham. Morley fielded a predominantly experienced adult team. If that wasn’t enough, Grantham had to deal with an experienced Morley women’s team in their home pool with the unusual feature of a permanent shallow end.

Despite the challenges, the game was a hard fought match with Morley hanging onto a slender (2 goal) lead at half time. Morley’s experience was evident, as a hard fought physical game had led to Grantham players receiving many more major penalties than the home team. This came to bite in the 3rd quarter when Millie was majored out of the game, meaning the team no longer had a substitute. A short while later, Rhianna was unfairly majored out, which the referee admitted to after the game. To cap it all, Connie received a nasty blow to the throat which meant she could no longer continue. This resulted in Grantham being down to 5 players towards the end of the 3rd quarter with another quarter to go.

On the face of it, this had all the markings of a hammering, but a fantastic defensive effort and terrific commitment from the remaining team in the pool and the encouragement from Millie and Rhianna from the bench kept Morley from scoring no more goals than they had in any any of the previous quarters. Although Grantham eventually lost 15-7, this was probably the best they could have hoped for given Morley had two defenders on one player each time Grantham tried to attack. The whole team should be extremely proud of the way they played and supported each other. Should they have had a full team in the pool in the last quarter, their greater speed and fitness would undoubtedly have led to a different outcome as it did back in March. Overall this was a great example of team commitment from all the players, particularly those in the pool in the final quarter; Georgie, Isabel, Evie, Florence and Catriona, who had a great game in goal. On the scoring front, Georgie led with 6 goals and Rhianna scored 1.

Thanks to all the players for their energy and never say die attitude and to the parents for bringing them the long journey and supporting throughout the game. Thanks also to Ginny for Team managing alongside myself and for managing the players in the absence of a coach.

Finally, best wishes to Connie in recovering quickly from a nasty injury.