4-0 Victory for Buckingham 4s over Newbury and Thatcham 4s

The 4s started the New Year with a confident display of mastery over their old Newbury and Thatcham rivals. The team started as they meant to go on with 4 penalty corners in the first 10 minutes with some nice variety in taking them, and only one Newbury break towards the Buckingham 23, confidently defended, before Tash struck in the first goal in the 13th minute. The Buckingham formation was a little shaky to start with, allowing the play to collapse into narrow crowded areas (not that Newbury worked out how to take advantage!), but once we got into our stride and the girls stretched the play across the whole width of the pitch, the 4s became completely dominant. Amalia clipped in the second goal in the 18th minute and Emily Krelle completed a lovely fluid movement up the pitch involving the whole midefield and forward line with a great chip from the post for the third goal in the 26th minute.

The second half started explosively, the a Buckingham long corner after 30 seconds immediately followed by a Newbury break towards the Buckingham goal cut off by Sarah with one of her trade-mark quick step-up interceptions clipped clear, instantly converted into a charge on the Newbury goal and a penalty corner awarded for a Newbury stick tackle following a Buckingham free hit on the edge of the Newbury D. The pc was neatly converted by Helen with a chip in from the post off a great Izzy strike to make the score 4-0. It was still only the 2nd minute of the half!

The rest of the match turned into a tussle as Newbury began to realise they had to organise their defense. There were several more good Buckingham attacks, the with ball going just wide or foiled by some great saves from the Newbury goalie. There were only two more penalty corners in the match, one to each side, but the goal fest was over.

This was a real team display. Votes for Player of the Match nominated seven different players from all parts of the field, with Izzy getting the accolade for her tireless work right up and down the field as centre mid, just ahead of Romy who was so secure in mid and screen turning the play back up towards the Newbury goal over and over again.

The bonus for the team from this match is that at last we have a positive points total in the division after the penalty points incurred for our 4 defaults in the first half of the season. The task now is to make sure we don't default again, and use our natural position towards the top of the division to secure enough points to lift us away from the relegation zone.