Ashford were at home to local rivals PHC Chiswick on Saturday with their normal squad supplemented by South African newcomer ‘Ernie’. In warm conditions Ashford opened well and played some positive hockey to put the visitor’s goalkeeper under pressure from the start. This resulted in them securing their first short corner after only three minutes of play. The new combination of ANNA PROTHEROE pushing out, skipper LAURA SAMOUEL stick stopping and JACKIE PARSONS striking worked well, with JACKIE’S hard strike going just wide of the left post. Further Ashford attacks quickly followed, along with another short corner, which saw SHARON McGLINLEY going close. It was therefore much against the run of play that the Red & Blacks allowed the visitors to gain a short corner and then slack defending let them score from the rebound and thus putting PHC Chiswick 1-0 ahead. Despite the set back, Ashford rallied and kept playing good hockey, prompted well by midfielders ANNA PROTHEROE, LAURA SAMOUEL, TRACEY HOLLAND and STACEY KENWARD. Numerous good forays on the visitor’s goalmouth followed, with STACEY KENWARD, LAURA SAMOUEL and JACKIE BASHFORD all creating chances and getting close to securing the equaliser. Meanwhile at the back Ashford goalkeeper SAM GRANT and defenders KIM FRY, SOPHIE SMART and EMMA HYNES dealt well with everything that the Chiswick midfield and forwards created. Thus it was somewhat disappointing that the Red & Blacks failed went into the break still 1-0 down.
During the interval Ashford lost the services of defender KIM FRY, who had bravely played on during most of the first half, despite having a badly damaged finger on her right hand. Ashford were thus left without a substitute for the rest of the game. The pattern of play in the second half was very similar to the first with Ashford being the more dominant side. However, it wasn’t until twelve minutes into the half that the Red & Blacks made any real inroads to the visitor’s goalmouth and in the several short corners that followed, Ashford failed to sort out their routine correctly and no shots and/or goals resulted. In fact it was Chiswick who went closest to scoring when one of their short corners went narrowly wide. Ashford kept trying though and a sweeping move between JACKIE PARSONS and TRACEY HOLLAND saw the effervescent STACEY KENWARD going close. Shortly afterwards one of the Ashford midfielders was given a very harsh green card by the visiting umpire following a tackle which resulted in Ashford being awarded a free hit! Although they were down to ten players for the next ten minutes, Ashford kept the tempo up and some more short corners followed, but despite all their efforts the Red & Blacks just didn’t seem to be able to get the ball over the goal line. As the game drew to a close and Ashford returned to a full compliment of players, they finally got the equaliser they richly deserved, when SHARON Mc GLINEY scored from close in following good work by JACKIE PARSONS and ANNA PROTHEROE. The score remained at 1-1 for the closing minutes and as a result of their point, the Red & Blacks moved up one place in the League to eighth position and youngster ANNA PROTHEROE was deservedly voted Man of the Match. There are no league matches for any of the Ashford sides next week, so the next 1st XI game is away against Harrow, the team one place above them in the League, on November 3rd.
Team:
S. Grant (GK), S. Smart, K. Fry, E. Hynes, A. Protheroe, ‘Ernie’, T. Holland, J. Parsons, J. Bashford, S McGlinley, L Samouel (Captain), S. Kenward
