Match Report

BKA Cup, 12th November

Basically - WOW! We've made it into the second round!! Our opponents in this round-robin first round were Cardiff Dragons, for the second year running after we made the trip to Wales last time round, and Invicta Sharks second team, who play in the National League Reserve Division.

MK1 vs Invicta 2

We needed to make some last minute team changes for this game due to illness and travel delay, and started with John, Simon, Suzanne and Amanda in attack, and Nov, Paul, Caz and Katie in defence, against a young Invicta II side containing several fast players. A storming start saw Simon score a long shot in the very first minute. Invicta missed a chance to equalise from the penalty spot, and then Suzanne managed to double our advantage. A goal from Nov extended the lead to 3-0 before Invicta pulled a goal back. Suzanne then scored from the penalty spot to restore the three-goal advantage, as we recycled the ball well in attack through strong collecting. However, a drop-off in our attack intensity coupled with improved attacking by Invicta saw them pull two goals back before half-time.

The break gave us a chance to regroup, and although Invicta equalised early in the second half, some improved all-round teamplay then saw us score a series of goals from John, Suzanne, Katie and Nov, to take the score from 4-4 right up to 8-4. Despite great defending, especially by John on their strongest boy, Invicta finally came back at us for a second time, and 8-6 was the point that we could have wobbled. However, a lovely long-shot from Paul (captured on video - perfect pass out from Caz in feed, I will put the film up when I figure out how!), and more good defence in a scoreless final few minutes, secured our first ever normal-time win in this competition (remember Cardiff was on penalties last year!)


Goal action (WMV files)
Suzanne penalty
Paul long-shot


We then had a match off, only to watch a Cardiff Dragons team, further improved since last year's competition, demolish Invicta, who became more dispirited as the game went on, 16-4, with the four boys sinking long-shots from every angle of the court. Would we have a chance against them....?

MK1 vs Cardiff Dragons

Specky started the second match in place of Paul, but nearly got off to the worst possible start by flattening Katie in the very first minute. Apparently the whole hall heard the sound of head hitting floor, but Katie was fit to carry on, and Specky then more than more than made amends by scoring the first goal of the game. Cardiff equalised, and the teams then exchanged goals again (I think it was Suzanne with our goal), however we then stepped up a gear and by half-time it was 7-2!!! This scoreline was created by not only good attacks, but also extremely strong defence with numerous interceptions, especially by John and Amanda, to recover the ball for us without having to wait to win a collect, and Simon doing a great man-marking job on Cardiff's most tricky attacker. In attack, Suzanne was taking the most chances at one end, earning and converting a penalty, while at the other end, with Nov deliberately avoiding the post due to having a 6 foot 6 Dutch opponent, Caz, Katie and Specky all took their turn in collect and all won plenty of collects to enable us to construct long attacks, Nov scoring from virtually the halfway line after another perfect pass out of the feed by Caz, and Katie turning her girl to earn a penalty and then convert it.

We expected a shell-shocked Cardiff to come out for the second half fired up, but we started well again ourselves with another couple of goals, Amanda scoring one of them from a side-feed. However, Cardiff then managed some sustained pressure and managed to reduce the defecit to 9-5. Unfortunately Nov then picked up a nasty wide gash on his finger and was unable to continue, with Paul coming on for the remainder of the match. Some more good all-round play from the whole team saw us produce another late spurt and keep Cardiff at Bay ;-), to win 13-6.


Goal action (WMV files)
Suzanne earns and scores penalty
Nov long-shot


Thanks to Cardiff and Invicta for making the trip and also thanks to both their refs and John, for refereeing the three games. And big thanks to our super support of Jon, James, Kirsty and two of John's kids. Now we'll wait and see who we get in the next round!

Teams and what I think were the goals:
vs Invicta II: Katie (1), Caz, Suzanne (3), Amanda, Nov (2), Paul (1), Simon (1), John (1)
vs Cardiff Dragons: Katie (1), Caz, Suzanne (3), Amanda (1), Nov (3, sub Paul), Specky (3), Simon, John (1)