Canterbury vs. Slough EHL Premier fixture on Sunday 4th Nov - lost 2-0
At the start of play, Slough were in second place, with Canterbury in joint third - thus, this was a big game for both sides and turned out to be the archetypal game of two halves.
In the first 35mins, Canterbury had the better of the play with Cath Gilliat-Smith going close on a few occasions; some good goal keeping and last ditch Slough defending kept her off the score sheet. The pace of the game was high, with chances at both ends, but the majority of these fell to Canterbury. Jenny Milne had an excellent game in the centre of the pitch for Canterbury, pulling the strings and making some good tackles.
The score was 0-0 at the half.
Slough came out strong in the second half, looking to record their first outdoor win in the league against Canterbury in the last 7 attempts. There was a much more even division of possession and play in the second period, and there was an increasing sense around Polo farm that the first goal could be decisive. Slough were able to fashion some better opportunities than Canterbury, and were able to take advantage of these - Slough scored to lead 1-0, but there was still much to play for. At this point, two decisions that could have gone either way, both went in Sloughs favour (a penalty corner that led to the second killer goal, and a strong penalty stroke shout against Sarah Kerly was waved away). This is not a criticism of the umpires, but at 2-0, there was no way back for Canterbury.
In the end, Slough probably deserved their victory in light of their clinical opportunity taking; for Canterbury, Jen Milne had a good game, particularly in the first half, Cath Gilliat Smith played very well, and Sarah Kerly made some good runs from the bench.