Beccles 7 - 0 Norwich City 7s (03/02/24)
Another great win this week for Beccles away against Norwich City 7s. It was great to get a full team out (plus 2 subs!) as it was looking like we might not get 11 just a couple of days earlier. Captain Gemma did a great job managing all the last-minute changes and there was some real commitment to the team shown by those who changed plans or turned up in less-than-ideal circumstances.
Beccles had a bit of a shaky start in the match and struggled a little bit for the first 10 minutes to get anywhere. City seemed to have control and they had a lot of time in our half and our D. Fortunately, our defenders and goalie were switched on from the start and managed to disrupt their attacks and keep any attempts firmly out of the goal. Midfielders Emma, Rachael, Jodie, and Hannah D worked hard to get the ball up the pitch with well-timed passes and strong runs and we started to gain some more chances in attack. A lovely strike from Debbie at the top of the D gained us our first goal. And then just 1 minute later we got our second goal which was more of a team effort with forwards Ellie and Debbie having a try on goal and Gemma retrieving the deflection and slotting the ball into the goal. Before half time we managed to get one more goal from Debbie to take us to half time 3-0 up.
The second half was more of the same. It was a high tempo game but both teams kept fighting and it seemed very evenly matched despite what the score line suggested. Beccles received two green cards along with 2-minute suspensions, but we didn’t let that phase us. A further 4 goals were scored, one each for Ellie and Gemma, an amazing backhand hit of a raised ball from Debbie, and a beautiful penalty corner strike from Emma.
City certainly didn’t make it easy for us and kept fighting for the ball and did have some strong players who kept breaking through and some big hitters who were managing to find their players. It was impressive work from our defenders (Lesley, Ruth, Hannah R, Mandy and Marie) and goalie Lorraine to keep a clean sheet in this match. A good team effort – well played everyone!
