April 17th, 2008 Posted in Competition, General | No Comments »
It is with huge delight and pride we are able to announce the semi-final appearance of our West Midlands squad at the Inter-Area Competition at the Indoor Cycling Centre in Manchester last Saturday 12th April.
Lots of hard work, from lots of people received its just rewards. My personal thanks go to every player who trained with us, also to the committee of WMKA especially Steve Chalk. The dynamism within the area, as well as the immense strength in depth player ability, has and still gives me immense satisfaction to be given the honour to be involved.
That said, there is still much more work to be done and I take personal responsibility in continuing our upward cycle. This is just the start.
Whilst I obviously hope I’ve helped increase performance and had a positive impact, I feel it is the players that deserve all the praise here. To a man/woman everyone played out of his or her skin. The levels of passion and fitness were breathtaking. When we needed a goal, someone was big enough to deliver. Last word for our captain – amazing!
Nick Wilkins © 5 goals, Ned West 2, Paul Dailly 2, Rich Crossley 2, Ben Whitlaw and Andy Davies
Ruth Morris 1, Emma Lancashire 1, Sally Alden, Caroline Woolley, and Emma Martin (qualifying competitive games only)
West Midlands 0 – 3 Yorkshire
We all felt pleased with the draw, having pitted us against what we thought was easier opposition and having taken the opportunity, being first on, to get properly warmed up – we felt ready.
……….alas we didn’t get started and a half-awake performance ended in defeat.
West Midlands 5 – 2 Wales
Think we all felt the relief, as we scored our first goal. Luckily this was 2-0 soon afterwards. From there we never looked in trouble. Defensively we completely smothered them. The captain’s third goal was added to by Ruth & Rich. Two late goals from the Welsh never felt a threat. At last we were playing, as we could.
West Midlands beat Scratch Team
Kent’s non-appearance gave us more opportunity to practice without pressure. Also, our subs had chance to star. Ben’s two goals impressed, as did his partnership with Andy. Emma M was unlucky to not score with her very first shot.
West Midlands 5 – 3 London
This was our ‘quarter-final’ and our best performance of the day. We needed to win. At 2-1 we really needed a goal. That most crucial goal came from Paul. The game thereafter looked ours for the taking. Ned’s two goals here, equally vital for the team.
West Midlands 2 – 7 Students
At 2-1 to us we saw what belief can do. Ultimately, better shooting gave the Students the edge, but many teams were taken apart, so this again was another pleasing result.
Semi-Final
West Midlands 1 – 8 Cambridge
Apart from Rich’s long range effort we never really got going. May be this was one game too far. Seemed there were a few tired legs out there. Although, at 2-0 their spirit and confidence grew, as ours unfortunately faded. That margin between success and failure can be a thin one.
In summary everybody stepped up a level, the defending of Caroline, Sally, indeed everyway was awesome. Apart from games against the eventual finalists we didn’t concede more than three goals. We look forwards to continuing the hard work, analysing game play (especially the losses) and further honing our attack play.
Tremendously proud of you all,
Stuart
