4s beat South Bucks 6-0

On a day when both the other club matches were iced off, the 4s took advantage of an early afternoon push-back to overwhelm South Bucks Ladies 1s with a cracking display of skill and teamwork.

Two penalty corners in the first five minutes culminated with our first goal from a straight strike from the top of the D from Evie, and she celebrated five minutes later with a wonderful hit from the injection mark on the base line past the whole South Bucks defence to give us our second goal. The attacking pressure from Buckingham rarely let up. A shot on goal from Tash narrowly missed in the 14th minute, Amalia's attack was saved by the South Bucks goalie five minutes later, and Evie had a shot rebound of the goal post shortly afterwards. Helen forced the South Bucks goalie into another good save in the 25th minute, followed five minutes later by a flurry of Buckingham penalty corners and a blistering one-handed run the full length of the left wing by Evie just before the half-time whistle. With the exception of a single South Bucks penalty corner in the middle of the half, Buckingham had been totally in control.

In the second half all the team had to do was bring the scoresheet up to match the quality of the play. 3-0 came from a Tash strike from a very narrow angle 10 minutes in. 4-0 was a lovely deflection from Emily from the post. 5-0 came three minutes before the final whistle from a penalty flick was awarded when Helen's chip into the goal during a crowded goal mouth tussle was stopped on the line by a South Bucks foot. Evie cooly hit the ball high into the South Bucks goal from the penalty spot. Buckingham still weren't done and a minute later Emily slashed the ball high into the net through a tangle of defenders for our final 6-0 scoreline.

The whole team deserves mention for this result, Daisy for her patience in goal and not losing focus on the rare occasions she had to keep our scoresheet clean, Ness for her non-stop energy, Charlotte for cooly holding the back of the defensive triangle and nipping South Bucks' attacks in the bud, Sarah for her becoming legendary ability to extracate herself and the ball from any tangle of opponents' legs and sticks, Kenzie and Liv for constantly sweeping up South Bucks movements forwards and turning the ball again and again back into a Buckingham attack. Liv is having a particularly impressive season and shines in screen. Eliza is a revelation in midfield, where I'm sure she will play for much of the rest of the season. Evie as ever was rock solid in centre mid, Helen and Tash kept the pressure coming from the very top of the field, but the two players who absolutely excelled in this match were Emily and Amalia, who both produced their finest performances to date, both full of energy and creativity, and above all unselfishly interracting with other team members in a lovely fluid display of ball passing hockey. They were righty voted joint Players of the Match.