Kettering 9 - 0 Nothgate

The first Skymoons game of the summer kicked off with a bang; a good team performance ending in victory over a Northgate team that had a couple of familiar faces from seasons past.
Getting onto the pitch proved to be the first challenge, the gate providing good defence against forward Lewis Pywell, who eventually managed to find an opening. Kettering soon got into the game, with Meg Forader opening the scoring. Laura cave scored Kettering's second goal, riding several tackles in the 'D' and slotting the ball past the Northgate keeper.
Northgate never crumbled, though, and kept pressing and forced some quality defending from Kettering. Youngster Ethan Smart scored what was to be one of many for him that night after some excellent passing play along the sides of the pitch. Jess Austin ended the first half by slamming a short corner in to the bottom corner of the opposition goal. 4 - 0 at halftime.
After a halftime team talk from captain Oliver Smith, Smart went on to consecutively score a further 3 goals, putting the score at a lofty 7-0 to the good. Northgate didn't get disheartened and continued asking questions of the Skymoons defence, but the Kettering goal was (luckily) never really troubled as it was in the safe hands of Stacy Hall, Jill Livingstone, Pat Cawley and Ed Jennings; with young Jennings earning the moniker 'The Whippet' from an opposition player for his speed across the pitch. Play went on with the Skymoons seeming comfortably in control, Ross Mathieson keeping the ball moving to Cath Irvin and Jason Clarke on alternate wings and an exceptional passage of play ended with Pywell roofing a bullet of a shot in the opposition goal - this eighth goal wasn't to be Kettering's last, with Cave scoring her second of the game to put the final score at an overwhelming 9 - 0 to the Skymoons.
A solid performance all round, keeping our heads and not trying to be overly fancy against an obviously weaker team. Hopefully next week's match against Saxons will test Kettering more and provide a less one-sided game, although from a goalie's perspective there's nothing to moan about. The game against Saxons is at the same time as it was this week (8:40 pm) on Thursday the 10th.