The women’s National League team took part in week 2 of their indoor season at DISC in Dundee on Sunday with an early departure time. It was a busy 3 games in a day schedule and the squad welcomed in Eva Sheal and Alix Mowatt for their debuts and the return of Emma Cornwell and Connie Hatfield.
The first game up was against Clydesdale Western 2s and this on paper looked a tough match. The girls however were in fine indoor form with Shiona Littlejohn and Lisa Clyne looking solid and composed at the back and Jess Walker in goals mopping up any scary moments. The GCW girls raced into a 3-0 lead but it was goal 3 that was the pick of the bunch. The passing was composed at the back and eventually Abby Miller passed the ball around the Western zone and Emma Cornwell picked the ball up and made a pass forward where Connie Hatfield collected and crossed the goal for Alix Mowatt to score. A great indoor goal proving if you move off the ball you do not need to move when on it. The final score was a comfortable 5-1 win and a very good indoor performance.
Game two of the day was against BAMBC so it was a local derby in Dundee. The opposition showed lots of energy but it was the calmness and solid indoor play that saw GCW win out 3-1. Goal of the game was the Connie Hatfield run through and placing of the ball beyond the keeper just as trained on Thursday evening.
The final game of the day was against league leaders Cala Edinburgh. We would be without Shiona for this game and Connie would miss the second half. The plan was to play a composed passing game to counteract the running pace game that CALA play. The plan was going extremely well as the score was 0-0 at half time in a very tight game. The start of the third period saw a moment of impatience by GCW and a forced pass was collected and ran into the circle by CALA who then squared the ball to take the lead 1-0. The second goal game from a disputed corner but was well fired home by the CALA squad. The GCW squad did not let the 3rd period errors get to them and came back and brought several saves from the CALA keeper, however neither keeper was to be defeated again and the final score was 2-0 to CALA.
With only one fixture remaining in round 1 of the fixtures the GCW squad sit second in the table and more importantly are showing that the game can be played with the head as well as the stick. We are off to Perth next week to play on a much tighter court where such composure will be required.
