Cardiff City Away, 1sts
15-11 Remco Broekhuis (5), Lee O’Sullivan (4), Chris Gubby (2), Joey Niblett (2), Angharad Morgan (1), Helen Gubby (1), Rachel Knight, Sian Hunt
After Dragons impressive victory over our friendly rivals last year it was inevitable that City would be keen to get their revenge and this game was much closer and of a higher standard. Both sides were at full strength, although Helen was playing through a nasty dose of flu and battled gamely throughout.
The game began with an exchange of penalties, but City had started the stronger and two shots from Ceri put them into a 3-1 lead. After that change of ends though, Dragons defence began to dominate, and they would hold City scoreless for the remaining 20 minutes or so of the half. City’s defence was also strong and well-organised though, and Dragons were struggling to score themselves. Gradually they did come, Joey with a long shot, Remco’s second penalty and a running in shot from Chris meant a 4-3 lead for us at half time.
After the tightness of the first half, the second saw plenty of goals, with Dragons having a clear edge around the post, but City’s excellent shooting keeping them in touch. It began with a lovely Dragons goal, Lee producing the feint to beat his player and notch a running in shot at the end of a training ground passing move. After Ramzi responded from range for City, Helen ran in and scored neatly. 6-4 to Dragons. From then on, Dragons lead never fell below two goals so we were always in control, but each time we threatened to pull away, City would respond, with Susan netting a hat-trick and Ceri adding another two.
Finally, Chris’s second goal of the game gave us a 14-9 lead, which with under 10 minutes to go put the match beyond City’s grasp. They kept on battling and pulled a couple back through Terry and Ramzi, before Remco’s 5th of the match from near half-way finished the scoring and a 15-11 win.
Against a City side that played superbly and with our shooting a little off par, it was a great achievement to win and sets the first team up ideally for the BKA cup matches. We stayed calm under pressure early on, and it was particularly pleasing to see a couple of goals come from routines we’d practiced in training.
Thanks to City for a great game and their top class sportsmanship and to Kevin for travelling over to ref us.