Arnold Eagles under 11 Buzzards v Radcliffe Olympic Red 6/6/21

Starting line up was – Lacey, Grace, Michele, Ava, Millie, Mala, Evie-Rose

Subs were – Sav and Alice

The girls started well attacking straight from the kick off. A couple more strong runs from Evie-Rose were followed by a ball from Ava to her; she took it in her stride and unleashed a shot that the keeper could only parry, onto the back of a defender, and it looped into the net – GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL 1-0 and credited to Evie-Rose.

We were on fire with Millie and Mala supporting Evie-Rose and a cross from her went tantalisingly across goal, Mala just failing to get on the end of it! Defensively Michele was stopping the Reds attacks and passing the ball along the right hand side up to Millie and Grace was doing the same on the left passing long up to Mala; supporting both the wide players was Ava, running midfield.

The first 15 minutes were a credit to development football with both sides attacking at every opportunity as well as defending solidly. Time for a change with Alice on for Michele and Sav on for Millie. We started again with an attack from a good kick from Lacey, after she had dropped onto a great shot from one of the Reds. Good to see a pass from Lacey to Grace to Mala to Ava and onto Evie-Rose…and another shot on goal. The Reds put a defender on Evie-Rose now and she began to find she had less time and space. 

This in turn led to the Reds dominating play for a few minutes as we struggled to get the right ball through their defence. Despite that we looked comfortable at the back with Alice getting important tackles in and getting the ball in to Ava. A long ball was threaded between Grace and Alice and their striker was first to it, stabbing it past Lacey from close range. We continued to play well and reached half-time even and all to play for.

Although Radcliffe were getting on top it was still an open game. Lacey was having a great game in goal, confident with her handling and her distribution was good. We could also hear her directing the defenders – fabulous to get that at this age group!

Sav was getting into her stride in her new position as a wide midfielder, marking well and working hard to get back and help defend, as well as moving forward to support the attack. She was inches away from a cross that beat the defence. The balance swung back to us with more possession and we made another change with Michele back on for Alice and Millie in for Mala. The game was still there to be won, with a shot from the Reds pushed away by Lacey and an effort from Ava just wide. Who would get the breakthrough? It was the Reds, with a few minutes remaining a snap shot just evaded Lacey and trickled over the line. We kept pushing for the equaliser but it wouldn’t come.

Our best performance of the season and every player deserved credit for starting to put training sessions into place on the pitch. Lots of positives, that’s for sure.

Final mention for Hannah going round with the scratch card and starting our team fundraising!

Player of the Match was Ava, for her overall work rate in the midfield.