Another win takes Wokingham South to 2nd in the league

Match Report:  CD Phoenix  v Wokingham (16/01/2011)

Score:  Win 46 v 24

Captain: Kimberley Holt

TeamManager: Tracey Stone

Coach: Tracey Carter

Player ofthe Match: Jenny Atmore (WA)

Team: Kelly (GS), Christa (GA), Jenny A (WA), Jo (C/WA), Sarah (C), Kim (WD/GD), Tracey (GD), Hayley (GK), Charlene (WD).

We certainly continued our strong start to 2011, beating CD Phoenix who had beaten us by 20 goals in the 1st half of the season. They are a young, fit and agile team and it was an enjoyable well contested and fair game.

CD Phoenix weren't going to make it an easy match for us which was clear from the start when they intercepted our first centre pass to take an early lead.  Our defence fought hard with everyone involved in turning the ball over with interceptions and tips from Hayley and Tracey in the circle and Jo (C) / Kim (WD) picking up all the loose balls.  We bought the ball down the court well, much to Tracey's delight as that was the focus of this week's training.  The attacked picked up where they left off in the last game, with good space and movement in and around the circle.  Resulting in a 10-7 lead at quarter time.

Tracey (Carter) wasn't giving us an easy ride either setting targets at each quarter time and we needed to press on to secure and win and build on our goal difference.  CD Phoenix changed their defensive tactics and came out strong on our first centre pass of the quarter and again turned over the ball and converted in their circle.  They maintained this pressure through the first half of the quarter and managed to draw level at 14-14. We needed to pull away again and both attack and defence stepped up to the challenge.  With our defence working strongly as a unit to limit CD Phoenix's options and therefore forcing passes for interception. Defence and attack worked well to carry the ball down the court, into the circle to be converted.  A beautiful interception from Jo in the final minutes of the quarter was converted to goal, giving us a lead of 23-16.

We brought on fresh legs for the 3rd quarter which definitely gave us an advantage over our opposition, with Charlene replacing Kim at WD and Sarah on for Jo at C.  Defence had an amazing quarter only allowing CD Phoenix to convert 3 goals, with a number of their centre passes being turned over and converted to a Wokingham goal.  Charlene was also a challenger for "interception of the day", with a reverse hand interception around the circle edge which brought a cheer from the bench.

Now realising we had a good lead we pushed on for goal difference and tried to deny CD Phoenix getting the point for 1/2 of our score (the table is getting tight at the top).  Kim was back on at GD for this quarter and Jo came back on at WA, again giving CD Phoenix different combinations to play against. We didn't manage to defend the CD Phoenix point, with them scoring in the final seconds of the game to take the score to 46-24 ... but what a position to be in that we are playing for points and goal difference as we had pretty much secured the win in the 3rd quarter.  Brilliant team game, with Jenny getting a well deserved player of the match.

This win takes us to 2nd place in the table, now the challenge is to stay there :-)