Croydon 1 gift Highbury 1 crucial win

In a crucial qualification match, Croydon 1 turned up at Score with essentially the same team as played Bec 2 except Grace Stimpson was delayed in traffic and so was replaced by the returning Jane Belfourd.

Croydon started sluggishly losing the ball twice when bringing it out of defence and Highbury were keen to lap up their gifts and made Croydon pay for their sloppiness: 2-0. Zak Omar started the visitors' scoring though with a one hander under the post. Highbury then won a penalty against Croydon's captain Anna Jeanes but the frankly ridiculously taken penalty was missed and Croydon got a lucky escape. However Vernon Ellis' opponent scored to restore Highbury's 2 goal cushion and it got worse as Omar conceded and then Hannah Evans had a shocker as she waltzed past her player when she was in possession of the ball in the feed. The chance wasn't missed and Highbury were 5-1 up after 8 minutes.

Jeanes called a time-out to gee up the troops. This had some effect as Evans won a penalty, converted by Dan Pratt, and then the same player turned in the feed for another goal. However during this period unfortunately Pratt was expending nearly as much effort appealing for decisions as playing and generally the ref was having none of it. Highbury's girls were continuing to score the goals and they netted the next 2 before Pratt won another penalty to keep Croydon in the match at 7-4. Neither side made much impression for the next 5 minutes but finally Highbury scored a neat long shot to restore a 4 goal lead. As time ran out on the half, Jeanes earned a penalty which Andy Withers converted. Half time: 8-5.

Croydon needed to score the first goal to get back into the match and Pratt exchanged goals with his opponent before Highbury started a goal spree that would ultimately seal the match. Croydon's boys were now conceding the goals with Highbury regularly out-collecting them and it was only more penalties from Pratt that kept the South Londoners vaguely in the match.

Evans was replaced after 10 minutes by Stimpson but unfortunately the new girl could do little to prevent a well-crafted running-in shot. Ellis scored from distance but his player replied in kind: 15-9. With only 10 minutes remaining the goals started coming thick and fast as Croydon tried to make up the lost ground but for as many as they scored, Highbury also found the basket. Despite another bizarrely taken penalty miss from Hutchinson-Pascal and a last minute trademark hoik from Julia Johnson, the hosts were comfortable with the final score of 18-12.

Croydon will be kicking themselves after their latest set-back in this topsy turvy season. Despite some well worked long shots in the 2nd half, the majority of the North Londoners' goals were gifted to them through slack marking, over-committing or poor positioning. Croydon need to be on the ball from the start and much more resilient, and force their opponents to construct good goals if they are to progress far in this league.


Match Report by Andy | Updated by Andy

Match photo 1 of 6
1 of 6
Final Score: Highbury 1 18 vs 12 Croydon 1

D Pratt (6)

V Ellis (2)

Z Omar (2)

A Withers (1)

J Johnson (1)

J Hudspith (0)

A Jeanes (0)

G Codd (0)

H Evans (0)

Submitted by Andy on 06 Dec 09