Hope because they were playing on a good quality astro-pitch that would allow them to showcase their silky skills. Fear because Athenlay are one of the strongest teams in the league and beat them twice comfortably last season.
The coaches were full of hope too after a strong start from the Dons, starting from the back with Elizabeth and Alice, progressing through the midfield trio of Esme, Nyla, and Isabelle, and up to Luella, who was leading the line. However, a swift counter attack saw Julian’s feel the force of the infamous ‘cannon-poke’ – the Athenlay captain scoring the first of her blistering long-range, 100mph toe pokes.
The Dons weren’t disheartened though and equalized quickly through a great dribble and cultured curl from Luella. A further goal apiece – a great poachers effort from Isabelle ‘Inzaghi’ Pyer and another dreaded canon-poke from Athenlay – and it was all square at half-time.
The Dons started strongly again in the second half, with Isabelle bagging a brace. 3-2 up, and with Athenlay’s captain on the bench, it all looked set for another comfortable Julian’s win. But then disaster struck, as Isabelle suffered an injury and Julian’s were down to six players with a third of the match still to go.
The opponents smelt blood (oddly, as the injury was a muscle strain, not a cut) and brought back the cannon-poke who promptly assisted for their equaliser and then completed her hat-trick to make it 4-3 to Athenlay.
But while the Dons were tired, their resilience was undimmed. A tactical switch brought Elizabeth up front, and Alice into midfield, and that ultimately swung the game around with the Holdsworth-Amos combo delivering twice to make it 5-4 to Julian’s.
Athenlay were stunned and went in hunt of another equaliser. But Julian’s worked doubly hard, with Nyla and Esme snuffing out the cannon-poke and preventing any real clear-cut chances. A tense last few minutes ensued as Athenlay added a long-throw-in specialist to their attacking armoury. But Julian’s held firm, and so the game ended with 5-4 victory to the Dons.
Athenlay gave girl of the match to Julian’s goalkeeper Zakaiya – presumably because she’s the first goalkeeper they’ve ever seen save a cannon-poke. But the Athenlay goalkeeper had by far the busiest afternoon – having to make single, double and sometimes triple saves from the Julian’s relentless attack.
Revealingly, the Julian’s girls shared their own girl of the match nominations across the squad – all seven girls played exceptionally well, played the Julian’s way, and played as a team, especially when they were a girl down.
A great victory, and even the inevitable south circular congestion on the way home just gave us more time to reflect on a fantastic team performance.
#COYJ