Date: Oct 25, 2009
Venue: Kidsgrove
Result: Castle 3 (9), CanKorf (7).
Summary: Deja vu, all over again? A close game throughout, just 6-5 down at half time (thanks to a great first-half hat-trick from Dan). A great, albeit tough, season's debut's for Martin, Clare and Sarah. Castle 3 was almost entirely made up from people that were playing down from higher teams, so we were really playing against the odds for most of the game. But we did really well to keep pace with their shooting, and we even went ahead at two points in the first half. All of our girls did a really great job to keep us in with a chance, and the boys managed to capitalise on what weak points there were in Castle's lineup. Big thank you to Lucie (from Keele) for helping to make up our numbers once again.
Positives: Great teamwork throughout (the running in shot that Dan scored off a diagonal over-the-top pass was an absolute stunner). Good passing once again, particularly within divisions. Good shooting all round, and good support play from the girls in particular: Clare and Sarah both doing an excellent job in collect, Eleanor and Lucie complementing them well by opening up lots of space away from the post.
Things to work on: Upping our standard even more, so that we can play against the best in the league in every match! I'm not sure that we could do a great deal better in attack, so the improvements probably need to come in defence. Working the ball out from defence into attack could perhaps be improved too.
Player stats:
Rob B, Ant (1 running in shot, 1 long shot), Clare, Lucie. (Mary came on for Clare with 6 minutes left to play)  
Dan (1 long shot, 2 running in shots), Martin (2 long shots), Eleanor, Sarah.

Date: Nov 20, 2009
Venue: Keele
Result: Keele 2 (3), CanKorf (14).
Summary: Cracking game, Grommit. We went ahead right from the start, with Rob scoring 2 running in shots in the first 2 minutes. Mary doubled our lead with another RI shot and a nice long shot after dropping off from the post. Then two nicely worked long shots, this time from 2-2 set ups at the front of the post for Helen and for Rob put us 6-0 up. Bill then won a penalty when he was fouled during another RI attempt, and Dan stepped up to convert it in style. Dan then doubled his own tally with a nice long shot from the sidelines to take the half-time score to 8-0. Second half goals from Rob (a medium range underarm shot when his defender overcommitted, and yet another RI one when the same thing happened again) and Ant (running in after running just about everywhere else - nice work Ant!) took the lead to 11-0 before Keele finally got on the score-board. Our luck seemed to run out a bit after that, with Helen, Stu and Dan all missing penalties, but there was never any doubt about us staying ahead, and we managed to match Keele goal-for-goal from this point forward. Stu scored a nice RI shot off a side feed from Rob, Ant scored a penalty and Mary wrapped things up nicely with a "walking in" shot at the end.  Big thanks to Mary and Helen (both officially borrowed from Castle for the day) for helping to make up our numbers.
Positives: Good attacking spirit from the start, especially from the boys, and good defending, especially from the girls (Helen had a tough time marking Lucie, and Sarah did really well to keep Mel from scoring). A great first-half first outing for Bill.
Things to work on: Veering away from switching/double defence, or using the drop-off option. Staying goal-side in defence, and pivoting.
Player stats:
Rob B (5), Stu (1), Cara, Helen (1),
Dan (2), Bill (Ant 2, on at H/T), Sarah, Mary (3).