Eagles U16 Lightning Vs Sandiacre Town Youth U13 Starlets Girls

LIGHTNING STRIKE TWICE

28/6/21

Under 13 Lightning squad were back in action for theirfinal “games” of the season in a ‘double-header’ against Sandiacre Starlets, at Calverton on a Monday night. For this match the first half was our home game and the second half was our away game! So six points available to secure our runners-up position. Vicki was unavailable as she was self-isolating, having been in contact with a friend who had tested positive for Covid!

Starting line up: Olivia, Edie, Isla, Sienna, Chloe, Grace, Evie, Autumn, Molly

Subs – Mia, Ebony, Keira, Keeley, Kayleigh and Sharay

Every player was going to play at least half a game tonight and the message from Laura was to go out and have fun, play as you normally do and win game one. Let’s do this for Vicki!

We started very well and had two early shots, both well saved by the Starlets keeper. Fairly early on it was clear that Starlets were going to play counter-attacking football, so we had to remain alert as we dominated the opening 10 minutes. Autumn and Grace were in fine form down the flanks, taking on and beating their markers. Grace making some telling crosses for Molly and Evie and Autumn going right to the goal line and pulling balls back and across the box, only to have them cleared by the Starlets defence.. It was a bit confusing as her marker was called Autumn; Autumn then decided to go for goal and did just that, hitting the post and the side netting as well as zipping a shot past the keeper, that brushed the far post and rolled out for a goal kick. A further effort was brilliantly saved by the keeper.

Then Starlets broke down the middle and as the player pushed on, Edie came in with a fantastic tackle, stopping her in her tracks, turning and laying a great ball to Autumn. Starlets had another couple of breakaways, Edie again breaking them up, well supported by the resolute defending of Sienna and Isla. Evie was her usual, effervescent, self, buzzing up and down the midfield and getting a couple of shots away. Molly was attracting plenty of attention from the Starlets defence and couldn’t find a way through. With 15 minutes to go Laura and Steve decided on just one change – Molly replaced by Sharay. The same two defenders that had been blocking Molly tried the same tactics on Sharay, but her long legs got her away from them and the shot was just wide. Then Sharay took a delightful pass from Grace, cut across her markers and hit another powerful shot just past the left hand post. The signs were goo but could we get that elusive goal? Yeswe could as Sharay, receiving a short pass from Evie, wriggled past the defence and smashed the ball into the net – GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Lightning 1 - 0 Starlets and still 10 minutes to go. What a nervy 10 minutes it was. Another ball form Starlets went over our defence and the well positioned Olivia rushed out to clear the danger. In fact Olivia, having little to do, was on top of her game, distributing the ball to good effect to the back three and drop kicking over the Starlets back three for Sharay to chase. One of these kicks bounced over the centre back, Sharay raced through, only for the keeper to come out, bravely and collect the ball. Nearly the end of the half as yet another ball from Sienna to Grace set up Sharay and she hit her shot with such power that the keeper couldn’t hold it. It bounced straight to Evie who sent it goalwards only for the keeper to make another fine save, blocking the shot. Evie, following up then hit it straight back and into the net – GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Lightning 2 – 0 Starlets. The referee blew just as Starlets kicked off, giving us a deserved win in game 1.

After a fifteen minute break we started game 2. Starlets had made a couple of tactical changes and we had put our subs on, only Olivia, Chloe, Sharay and Evie staying on. Kayleigh was at centre back with Keeley on the right and Keira on the left of defence and Mia playing wide left with Ebony wide right. It was clear that Starlets wanted this game with their quickest player up front, four in the middle and three at the back, giving Sharay more space.

Starlets striker then latched onto a through ball and burst through, shooting past Olivia into the top right corner. Only two minutes had gone!! Score Starlets 1 – 0 Lightning

We had a battle on now. Lightning continued playing their passing game and pressed Starlets back, with their defence surrounding Sharay. Laura and Steve were thinking of swopping Keeley to the right and Keira to the left and when we looked up they had already done it! The switch worked with Keeley keeping closer to their striker. The link up play between our back three and midfield was a joy to watch. Mia in an unfamiliar position wide left was consistently doing one-two’s with Keeley, and alsobringing Evie into play down the middle. On the other side we saw Ebony and Keira working well with Ebony flying down the right and getting some great crosses in. Evie and Chloe were totally in control in the middle and we continued to press Starlets back, giving us more space to work in. The clock was ticking and we knew we had only 10 minutes left to score two goals to win it.

The character of this team is not in doubt and those final 10 minutes saw them step up a gear. Then we made our final change bringing Molly on for Chloe, Evie in front of the defence and Molly at the top, behind Sharay. We won the ball and Keira released Ebony, surging down the right past her marker, she cut inside and smashed the ball across the keeper from the edge of the box and into the bottom corner – GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Ebony’s first for the team and what a goal! Starlets 1 – 1 Lightning

That was the trigger for a blitz to get that second goal and within 3 minutes we were in front. Sharay shook of her markers and clipped a shot past the oncoming keeper – GOOOOOOOOAL! Starlets 1 – 2 Lightning

2 minutes later a chip from Evie to Molly saw her slip the ball through a gap and Sharay was in a race to it with the Starlets keeper – they arrived together, Sharay’s shot spiralled up in the air, fell back on the keeper…and rolled into the net – GOOOOOOOOAL! Starlets 1 – 3 Lightning with two minutes to go. Surely we had won – but no, almost from the re-start a long ball caught us out and their striker hammered another fine shot into our net! Starlets 2 – 3 Lightning

We re-set with Molly and Evie dropping deeper, leaving Sharay on her own. It was all about preventing Starlets scoring. There was late drama as a long ball from Evie put Sharay away, only for the keeper to race off her line and collect the ball. She sent a huge kick almost into our penalty area and their goalscorer hit it first time…just past Olivia’s right hand post. Then the whistle blew after a pulsating game that could have gone either way. Final score Starlets 2 – 3 Lightning

So six points won and strengthened our position as runners-up. Laura summed it up – “Fantastic girls” Everyone out there had contributed to this match result and to our successful season. Now on to 11 a side.

Player of the Match went to Ebony for her work rate and that important equaliser