Drew 1-1
Scorers: Mel Clewlow
MoM: Auror Mears
DoD: Joint honours – lucy Barnes and Sarah Kerley-Handley
With a long journey, a small 12 man squad and no short corner masks the odds were against us from the start away against Whitney. Having lost to Whitney in the home fixture 1-0 we were keen to make amends on their home turf.
Things did not go as planned and at times it seemed that many of us had lost the ability to play hockey. We hung in there and managed to get a hand full if short corners in the first quarter but unfortunately we were unable to score. Whitney had some good spells of pressure and looked the stronger team, Canterbury were relieved that Aurora was on fine form in the goal keeping them in the game. With a few wise words at quarter time Canterbury managed to sort out the marking and again had some attacking opportunities but to no avail. A bright moment in the 2nd quarter was Kerler calling the umpire ‘Sir’ which understandably led to her joint DOD award. Whitney got a corner and pushed into the lead with a loopy drag flick going into the half time break.
At half time we were keen to stem the attacking threat of Whitney and come out to play a better 3rd quarter (this has been a tricky time for us in recent weeks) we went into the second half with all to play for. Canterbury managed to maintain some possession and had more time on the ball with less chasing for our depleted squad. Barnesy had a spell on the bench after going a bit dizzy following a coming together with an unknown body part of a Whitney player ( I’m guessing hence DOD award??).
Still down 1-0 going into the 4th quarter but with it all to play for Canterbury continued to maintain good spells of possession but is was not until the final 2 minutes that we got another short corner that was expertly dispatched by Clewlow in the bottom right corner.
Whitney were understandably disappointed with only 1 point but thanks go to them for a nice game of hockey and helping us out with some short corner masks….!!