b'THE ELLESMERIAN 106Girls HockeyU14The season began with the 7-a-side North Shropshire tournament.Towards the end of the season, one of the worst storms in recent Despite having had few opportunities to play together as a team, weyears put paid to the fixture against Rydal Penrhos. This meant that threw ourselves into the challenge. We looked strong going forwardwe were a little rusty when we ended the season with a trip to but sometimes struggled to track back and regain possession.Moreton Hall. This was probably the closest encounter we had all However, this was something that the team rectified as theseason and both teams were determined to finish the season on a tournament progressed. We beat Sir John Talbot 2-0, Adcote 4-0, andhigh. It was a game that neither team deserved to lose due to the drew 1-1 with Moreton Hall. As a result, we ended level on pointslevel of commitment across all areas of the pitch. Unfortunately, we with Moreton Hall to share the trophy.were unable to keep out the relentless attacks from Moreton and ended up losing 1-0. The transition from 7-a-side play to 11-a-side, when playing against Kings, showed that we had a lot of work to do on decision-makingThe most pleasing things to reflect on at the end of the season were within the game. We were able to win possession in midfield areasgreater team cohesion and seeing players developing their but all too often conceded it when trying to move further up theunderstanding of the game.pitch. However, we never gave up and sheer tenacity meant that we did score a consolation goal just before half time. This gave us a boostLKand we kept a clean sheet throughout the second half.Close losses against Shrewsbury and Wrekin followed, but we managed to get on the scoresheet through some determined persistence inside the D. The team managed to build on this and went on to back-to-back victories against Adcote and Bedstone College. What was most pleasing in these matches was increased evidence of supportive play and players working together for the good of the whole team. It was also real dogged defending that ensured that we kept clean sheets in both these matches, meaning one goal was enough to clinch victory in each match.'