Blackheath & Elthamians L1 4-2 Sevenoaks L3

Blackheath Ladies started the match ready to pick up where they left off at Crostyx two weeks ago (winning 10-0), and with the encouragement from both Captain Sue Moore and coach for the day Nicky Lloyd-Alexander the team felt ready to take on an always strong Sevenoaks side. The match didn’t quite start as planned with Blackheath going one down fairly early in the first half having falling victim to the fast and fit Sevenoaks forwards. The height of many of the Sevenoaks players caught many of the shorter Blackheath players by surprise so it’s likely that had an impact on the first goal too.

Thankfully the Brown sisters levelled Blackheath with some great perseverance from Charlie winning Blackheath a penalty flick which Hannah calmly converted. 1-1. The play continued in Blackheath’s favour with some great linking play by the whole team, always providing at least two options to the player on the ball. This composure was rewarded as Sue Moore picked up a ball rebounded off the goalkeepers pads and slammed it home to make the score 2-1 to the home team.

At half time Nicky described the play from Blackheath as gorgeous and lovely (apart from the bit about the shovels ;-)) which encouraged the team to keep it up. Whilst the play did continue to be fantastic, the home side were unfortunate to concede during a Sevenoaks short corner that blasted through to the backboard. 2-2. Blackheath knew they needed to convert their fantastic team play in to points so again their perseverance paid off in the D with yet another penalty flick awarded, and subsequently converted by Hannah Brown. The highlight of the match was still to come…

In the last section of the second half Emma Huxley gave the team reason to celebrate as she weaved her way up the pitch and around the D, calmly taking the ball wide only to then pull it round a Sevenoaks defender and through the legs of the keeper to hit the backboard. Emma has been instrumental in the success of the team so far this season but until today she hadn’t made it on to the scoresheet so everyone was delighted! Cheers of ‘we love you Emma we do’ could be heard from the sideline led by the No.1 supported Kate Peth. 4-2.

Blackheath finished the match relieved to have come away with the points they deserve. Emma Huxley was awarded MOM and Sue DOD for an unfortunate touch in the D. Special shout out to Nikki for coaching us and managing the subs bench, Thank you!