3-2 Victory for 4s against Witney 3s

The 4s had a great victory on Saturday against our old rivals Witney 3s, beating them for the first time on our 5 encounters. This was a fantastic result - Witney were unbeaten so far this season and top of the league!

The match was very hard fought indeed, and the 4s did themselves proud, particularly given that we are essentially a new team who have hardly played together. Maddie and Missy were having their debute senior match for Buckingham, and Holly, Evie and Sarah were all in only their second senior match for us. Sarah was playing in defence for the first time ever, and Evie took the key centre-mid position

We had a somewhat shaky start, with a succession of half a dozen short corners against us in the first 5 minutes. Astonishingly we fought off this initial onslaught, in large measure due to Daisy's commitment and panache in logging to frustrate Witney every time. We still struggled to find our feet, repeatedly being drawn too high in our eagerness to push forwards and then being rapidly stretched back on the break, particularly by Witney's very fast centre-forward well supported down both wings. After about 15 minutes of pressure Witney got their reward in their first goal, and it looked like the match was going to be a little one-sided.

That was when Club Day proved its worth, and Fi and Kat from the 1sts came onto our sideline and started calling out some invaluable positional advice to the girls. As a team we switched on our game brains and the whole balance of the match changed as we found depth and breadth, kept the defence much tighter with Mackenzie dropping back so that the defence formed a strong 'V' shape, and started looking and calling to each other as a team. We held Witney for the rest of the first half, and knew we were in with a good chance of reversing the 0-1 deficit in the second half.

Within 10 minutes Evie slotted in her first goal off a short corner. Witney got ahead again with a rapid break and a shot across the 'D' to a neat deflection in off the far post, but Buckingham responded again immediately with another Evie goal off a short corner in the 16th minute. The whole balance of the match switched into Buckingham's favour, and Marion (whose tireless running proved that she can thrive with longer than 5 minutes on the pitch at a time ) finally put us ahead with a stunning run down the wing, crossing straight across the D and smashing in a cracking goal. We comfortably held Witney off for the last 15 minutes of the match due to the skill with which the midfield controlled the centre, superbly anchored by Player of the Match Evie, with great energy from Issy and Amalia supporting her all the way and Holly and Maddie smoothly providing the engine to feed back to them from screen. The defence of Mackenzie, Sarah and Jenny, and of course Daisy, could never completely relax, but securely contained the remnants of the Witney attack.

This was a real team effort - everyone played out of their comfort zone. Maddie and Missy proved their ability and place in the squad completely, Maddie effectively stepping straight into the vital role of screen and Missy showing confidence up front to give Marion and Tash a chance to catch their breath.

Well done everyone - it was a privilege to play with you and a great way to celebrate Club Day!