Folkestone Optimist L1 1-0 Blackhearh &Elthamians L2

Not all the gear, but a new idea

Blackheath ladies 2XI turned up to the coastal hotspot that is Three Hills Sports Park in convoy, Netty transporting a healthy majority of the team in a single car (so eco-friendly it’s not funny).
As the team congregated in the changing room, panic set in as Lucy realised she had left her skort back in Blackheath. She was later duly awarded the ‘thanks for coming’ award for her organisational skills.
This week, the ladies decided to revert to their old, familiar and comfortable formation rather than persevere with whatever it was we’d been trying to pull off for the first half of the season (to mixed results).
As we gathered at pitch side post warm-up, we were left dumbstruck by the display of violence in the final minutes of the Folkestone men’s game that preceded ours. An angry goalkeeper was awarded a red card for head butting (with helmet on) a reckless attacker, leaving the latter horizontal on the pitch for a good 5 minutes.

Anyway, once we finally graced the pitch, our new old formation had us feeling much more at home (despite being nearer France than Blackheath).
Some lovely passing and communication up and down the pitch had us looking much sharper than we’d looked in a while.
Folkestone were hungry for a goal but Zoe did her usual trick of transforming into a wall and fended off some great chances, earning her Player of the Match.
Sadly, we didn’t quite convert any of our chances, and by the time Folkestone got one of theirs in, it was too late for us to counter.

End result: 0-1
Takeaways: stick to the old formation and the Three Hills Sports Park only sells Folkestone Optimist branded clothing merchandise.