...were the words of Captain Sophie, and thus the aim for the team for this match. We were beginning to lose a bit of heart with the Surrey League due to losing every game, some by less than 5 goals, so a new strategy needed to be adopted to face the 2nd-placed team in the division: Bank of England (who decided to turn up with a 6ft 1 tall GK, against our 5ft 3 Soph).

Starting 7 were (GK to GS) Charlie, Leigh, Georgie, Niamh, Lauren, Ellie and Sophie.

First quarter was OK. Some little mistakes, like getting caught on backline passes and not quite adjusting to the height of the GK on our shots meant that we didn't take it away as much as we wanted to, however we did win the first quarter by 2.

Second quarter was much better, and we began to use our brains. Georgie moved to C and Selena came on at WD - and this made an incredible impact. Selena worked out her player and got some great interceptions, and Georgie massively helped out on the backline passes by timing her drives, so too many bodies weren't clashing in the mid-court. Charlie and Leigh then took out Bank's GS, causing an early half-time - but at this point, the score line was 22-18 to Hillcrest.

No changes were made in the third quarter, but Bank's 6ft 1 GK now was at GS, and Charlie and Leigh had a lot of work to do to stop balls from being lofted in over their heads. So this meant that the work needed to be done in the mid-court, to help them out. Our strategy was: on centre passes, force your players into the middle and deny all space - and on Bank's backline passes from the GK, we needed to push all players high up the court to force the shooters out - and create opportunities for ball turnover. Which we did!!! Selena cracked on with some fantastic interceptions (cannot be prouder of her), Leigh flew in with some cracking tips and Bank forced the ball off-court with panicky overheads. We did note, however, that we drew the quarter - so more work needed to be done to guarantee the match.

The same defensive strategy applied for the fourth quarter, but this time we needed to keep our heads level and focus on getting that win. A tactical change came at C - fresh legged Niamh came on for Georgie and used her speed against a more tired Bank C. As such, we got the ball down the court quickly, to feed Ellie and Sophie some great balls and shots were sunk from all over the circle.

A good display all-round, completely against the odds.

Final score: 50-40 to Hillcrest.
Player's POM: Selena, for being an absolute true WD, and causing havok for Bank by intercepting loads of passes.
Opposition's POM: Sophie