Mixed vs Crowborough

A cold but definitely not miserable Sunday morning saw the Hailsham mixed side host Crowborough for a revenge friendly.

For some it was their first game back since the winter break and it showed! Some rusty sticks and some had gone in too hard with the turkey and Christmas pudding. Thankfully Hailsham had a full bench, the same could not be said for Crowborough having turned up with a bare 11. Requesting to play quarters due to no subs, they clearly haven’t seen Hailsham men’ 2’s on a Saturday, (note to Sam….ask for quarters).

The first quarter started out fast paced from both sides, Crowborough pressing high trying to keep the ball in the Hailsham half. Riley finding the ball often in the centre with some quick one twos between her and Ruthven. Katie was flying down the left doing her best Dave impression as usual. And of course Aiden had to make sure both Kirk and Andy were fully stretched and limber as his disguised passes almost fooled his own team.

The second quarter was much the same with players being rotated and keeping legs fresh. This resulted in Hailsham teasing some goal attempts with Luke with his silky runs and with Sophie having a crack at goal…. And of course Big John showing his football skills in front of goal.

After the half time break captain Riley made some changes to the line up. The shake up was successful as early into the 3rd quarter a short corner was won and deftly put away by Sophie with an impressive drag flick, Hailsham 1-0.

Once again Aiden kept everyone on their toes with a classic aerial to the Crowborough centre forward, but luckily some of us at the back are used to his shenanigans. The highlight of the quarter was from Kirk (which won him the popular vote) a long bomb aerial from Crowborough was brought down with such precision that Messi or Ronaldo would have raised an eyebrow. The lead was short lived when Crowborough scrambled the ball over the line after a few goods stops from Bob. 1-1

Lack of substitutions really began to show for Crowborough in the last quarter, with Hailsham really piling on the pressure. Which eventually led to 3 consecutive short corners, the final one breaking through. The ball bounced between 3 Hailsham players with Danny firing it onto the back board 2-1. Hailsham closed out the game keeping Crowborough from responding.

Goals:

Sophie Cable 1

Danny Belton 1

Katie Bates POM great runs down the wing as usual, she didn’t fall over once (take note Dave)

The popular award Kirk Manning, still waiting his England football team call up.