Gloucester ladies 2 - Swindon ladies 3

Swindon made the short trip to Gloucester to face league leader, knowing this was going to be a tough game and the warm weather conditions weren’t going to help.

As expected Gloucester started the stronger of the teams and put Swindon under pressure every time they had possession, having ridden the stormy first 10 minutes Swindon started to get into their rhythm and started to played their own game, with 13 minutes played Swindon won a free hit just on the edge of the D, with quick thinking from Linda Brouwers driving the required 5m she crashed the ball into the circle to find Victoria Stokes with her trade mark deflection to beat the keeper. This goal certainly sparked Gloucester into back action and it wasn’t long before an attack down the right long the baseline, the initial save was made by Alexis Hogarth but the rebound fell kindly to a Gloucester player to level the score, the remainder of the half was very evenly matched with no further goals.
With a passionate halftime talk, the main forces was, be calm on the ball and value possession, with this in mind Swindon started the second half the stronger of the team and with 5 minutes played were awarded a penalty corner, the strike from the top from Chloe Lewis took a deflection off the Gloucester defender to loop up for captain Adriana Boullosa to play a tennis shot to make sure it ended up in the goal, after some debate with umpires and Gloucester the goal was final given.
Swindon continued to dominate the second half with great team work across the pitch, any attack’s that did come through were swiftly dealt with by Ella Caldwell, Mary Goldsmith and Angela Cooke, however on one occasion a long ball beat our defence but the Gloucester forwards were then faced with in form Lexi Hogarth taking the one on one situation in her stride and coming out with the ball.
With 10 minutes left to play Swindon were looking to seal the win and extend the lead, a great ball down the right from Gemma Scrase to Vic stokes who drove the baseline her initial shot was saved but it came back to Vic to calmly play it across the goal to find Lynsey Wall completely unmarked to slam the ball into the goal to take a two goal lead.

Gloucester now looking as though they were going to lose their first game of the season pushed hard to close the gap, with 5 minutes left a scramble in the D saw the first shot saved but it managed to drop again to a Gloucester player who pushed it over the line.
Swindon undeterred by this late challenge held strong and continued to play calm passing hockey with everyone giving every last bit of energy they had left to make sure we came home with the well deserved three points.
An amazing match to watch with tremendous work rate from every single player.

Joint MOM - Mary Goldsmith & Gemma Scrase