It was a cold and wintery day in December and our under-10 and under-12 girl teams all gathered in the Community Centre in Donabate for our first match against our Skerries rivals.

An enthusiastic fan crew of parents, granddads and grannies, brothers and sisters (some with the club colours painted on their faces), all in Great Spirit and looking forward to the first real hockey match experience.

After a few discussions about the colour of the hockey sticks (very important!), we all got in the cars and drove up north to Skerries.

When we arrived on the Skerries pitch conditions were tough and the pitch was huge! And……… Skerries had boys in their teams………. Now what?

We discussed the game plan, the tactics and after a great inspirational team huddle we were ready for the clash of the titans.

Some great hockey was played on both sides of the pitch, there were some impressive passes and rushes. All the training and exercise we put in over the last couple of months really paid off. We came close to scoring a few goals and we defended like tigers, a really great performance considering that for most girls this was the first match they ever played.

With only a few points in the difference in favour of Skerries (all scored by the boys) the ref blew the final whistle.

There was lemonade and crisps and we thanked the Skerries boys and girls for the great match.

Well done girls you played very well, you played like a real team and you put a smile on the face of your proud coaches.