Catherine Charlton - Women's 4s Captain
Wow what a season this has been!
So to give you some STATs:
Within the league:
We played 13 games (an additional 5 were awarded as walkovers)
We won 3 (8 if we include the walkovers)
Drew 3
Lost 7
Overall Position Second.
We scored 19 goals in our league matches, but had an amazing friendly against Stroud where we won 8:0, bringing our total to 26 goals. This particular win came midway through the season and gave us a much needed lift as we had suffered a number of defeats leading up to this friendly game.
The availability this year amongst our team has been truly epic. That may in part be due to having such a large number of players assigned to our squad, but we have had a really good core group of players available to play this season, and whilst I know that there are many of you who have played a number of games with us this year, and we couldn’t have done without ( Eilidh, Julie, Sid, Gabbie, Nadia, Steph, Emily, Shona, Holly S, Eleanor), I do think it is important to give a shout out to those who’s availability has been consistently good throughout the season, as I do believe it is down to that consistency, which has helped us so much this year:
The Regulars
Helen (GK) Viv, Rachel, Sarah, Manoji, Sian, Erin Corrigan, Holly C, Isla, Erin Campbell, and a special mention to Meg who only missed one game this season.
We have also welcomed into the fours this year a number of players who have not played hockey either before, or for a very long time, as well as more of our younger vixens players, and it has been great to see all of their confidence and skill on the ball improving over the weeks.
Finally, I think it is really important to note that as a development squad, we have been pretty much self-sufficient this season, very rarely needing to borrow players from the 2 and 3’s, except on a few occasions when needing a goalie (thank you to Chloe, Shaz and Karen). This has meant that the wins that we have secured have been down to you as a team and many of the losses were due to our opposition needing to supplement their Development Squad with more experienced players.
As I said at the time, having the opportunity to play against tougher opposition is great experience, and not once did I see heads drop when we suffered our defeats. What has so impressed me this season has been week on week, the support you give to each other and how each and everyone of you gives of your best right to the end of the match. We have a great team and are part of a great club, and next year looks to be really exciting as we have the numbers to put forward a team into a competitive league. Thank you to you all, for the part that you play to make our team what it is.
