Berko Bite Back

Always a good match between us and Berkhamsted and today was no different, praise to Chris and the Raiders team for the warm welcome and sportsmanship.

Harvesters arrived with a severely depleted squad, and up until a minute before kick off we were looking at only being able to field a team of four, but then we saw Eva struggling up the hill. knowing that we had a reduced team, Eva who had a niggling injury bravely turned up not wanting to let her team mates down. After a quick check by myself, the ref and Andy from Berko, Eva was declared fit to play and that was it, there was no holding her back. we kicked off and a great run up the wing by El Cazo found Eva in the centre who smashed home with that left foot of hers. A few minutes later and the same again, El Cazo, up the wing, drew three opposition out to her and a great cross with Eva on the end of it again.

Berko cottoned to this and shut the door on the wing and made brilliant counter attacks with lovely goals at the end. Going into the second quarter level it was a true grit game. Amelia was in old school sweeper mode and cleared any ball that came her way and almost scored from a super long range shot. Berko continued to press and were rewarded again. Anna then moved up front and from a lovely one two between Eva and El Cazo she took the pass and fired a rocket straight to the back of the net. Second half and we were tiring, no rest for the girls and playing up hill took its toll. Hope in goal made several great saves and quick releases to El Cazo who ran and ran but by this time tiredness was showing and our shots were just drifting wide. Full credit to the girls today for fighting through the tiredness and putting on such a brave display. Harvesters player of the match to Hope for great goalkeeping and Amelia to be captain next week for pure resilience in the centre.