Match Report

MK1 vs Oxford Uni 1, Sunday 14th Jan 2007

After the toughest league test of the season so far, MK1 came through to preserve our 100% league record!

After losing Caz on the day to a netball finger injury picked up the day before, Kirsty stepped up to play her first ever full match for the 1sts, and with John also unable to play, Paul and Tony shared the final spot for the boys. The start of the match was very low-scoring indeed, with Suzanne finally opening the scoring with an overarm running-in shot right under the post, but Uni, who had won the southern university championships since last time we played them, equalised quickly. Uni then took a 2-1 lead and were constructing some long attacks and winning the collects, with our own attacking division unable to get any momentum going, but after a suggestion from John on the sidelines, Katie was side-fed by Specky and fouled on the shot, and Nov converted the penalty. It was good to equalist quickly and Simon then scored a long-shot to give us the lead again, but Uni equalised again, and then did so a second time after we had taken back the lead after a cleverly worked free-pass led to Katie putting the ball in the basket. All this left the scores level at 4-4 at half-time.

The second-half scoring opened with Suzanne scoring possibly the highest long-shot in the world ever, and we finally then managed to get a two-goal lead. Would we be able to finally extend into a bigger lead? Nope. Uni pulled a goal back and were awarded a series of free passes, converting what felt like about the fourth one to draw level again. It then looked for a couple of seconds that they had taken the lead back with a shot from near the back corner, but fortunately for us, the linesman flagged it as being defended. We then took a 7-6 lead (those sixth and seventh goals were Simon and Ali, I just can't remember which order!) but Uni then equalised once again! Fortunately, we did not panic and set up to feed Nov for a running-in shot, followed quickly by a long-shot from Katie which gave us the two-goal cushion back with time running out. When Ali then extended the lead to 10-7, it was finally game, set and match and a big sigh of relief, and although Uni pulled a goal back in the final minute, it was too late and we had the win.

Team and goals:
Katie (2), Kirsty, Suzanne (2), Ali (2), Specky, Nov (2), Paul (sub Tony), Simon (2)