| Match Report |
Stoke A won the toss and started play only to be intercepted by Firebirds who put it straight up to the D but a miss. It was back down to Stokes shooting end, but the defence just killed all channels available, collecting the ball and returning it to the Firebirds shooting D for Sophie to finish off with a fantastic shot, 1 - 0 in about 15 seconds. This had the makings of a fast game. Firebirds put relentless pressure onto Stoke and they were struggling in all departments to contain Firebirds. Maddy played a key role by keeping the ball moving with the rest of the team easily finding space. Unfortunately, we did not have the shooting accuracy from the start with nine misses out of 17 attempts. The half time score was 8 - 2. The second half saw some changes in positions with Naomi going to C, Anna to GK Maddy to WA and Victoria to WD. This made a massive difference to the flow of the game. Maddy again worked really hard making lots of space in the Stoke defence giving Firebirds a real advantage. Firebirds looked much more comfortable as the game progressed and developed some good plays. Any mistakes by Stoke or interceptions were punished as the goal shooting improved with only four misses out of sixteen attempts in the second half. Stoke battled hard and only managed to breech a very solid Firebirds defence three times but scored each time.
All in all this was a good win however it was not a convincing team performance. At times players were cruising, chatting to the opposition or slowly moving around the court and a generally low work rate. The final score of 22 - 5 is a good score but there was a mass of missed opportunities that should have been capitalized on throughout the game.
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