Monsters 1 Emerald 0

A well deserved win this evening for the Mighty Monsters! And it's about time. We've been playing well recently but not getting any reward for our play.

Once again we have Paige to thank for her cool finish to the corner, but prior to that Leah, Annabel, Mia, and Marissa all had great chances to open the scoring. And soon after Paige had scored, Nicole forced their keeper into two great reflex saves.

I was really impressed with some of our approach play (passing and movement going toward their goal). Some of it was excellent - the only thing missing was the final shot, where too often we rushed our shot when we had more time to set ourselves for the shot. This isn't always the shooters fault. As team mates we must help the shooter by telling them they have "time" to get their head-up and have a look at where the goalie is (or should I say isn't). And if I was being really picky I might remind forwards that we need to attack the ball when it's delivered into the box from midfield or the wings. I thought our corners were excellent tonight and all we needed was someone prepared to get their body on the ball and blast it into the net!

At our end of the field they rarely got a shot away thanks to some good defensive work, especially from Margaret, Leah, Paige and Marissa. In fact I cant remember a game where our keepers had so little to do. One thing we didn't do enough of was attacking the ball, preferring to wait for it to stop bouncing. This is a bad habit to get into, so try and judge the bounce so that you can get to it before your opponent. And get more physical! We must be the only team who doesn't use our arms and shoulders on opponents when taring to win possession of the ball.

There was no shortage of candidates for Player of the Game. IMHO most of you had your best game so far in Spring league. As a result i don't think it would be fair to name just one player when everyone contributed so much for the win. Good going!

Next game is 6:30pm Monday against White. Three games left - still plenty of time for Nicole, Emma, Margaret, Brooke, and Madeline to get a goal!