U8 v Mansfield Town

Today we played a home game against Mansfield Town. Having played them previously we knew that they were a good team, that said our girls really rose to the challenge today. We had some fantastic defending from Georgia who made Hollie’s job in goal much easier! We also had some great saves made by Sophie whilst she was playing in goal. Everyone of our girls played as a team today and gave it their all. Juliana was our girl of the game today, she was there on the ball every time she could, she made some brilliant tackles and opened up opportunities to take the game forwards the whole time she was on the pitch. 

U9 v Holy Spirit Celtic

Player of the Match: Libby

U10 v Gedling Southbank

Well what a game VS Gedling, the tackles today we're fierce and meaningful. The game saw some smashing goal line clearances and in front of goal defending from our team.

All girls played amazing despite the weather! 

Girl of the game: Thea

U11 Rebels v Ravenshead

Player of the Match: Thea

 

U12 Lightning v Belper

A soggy and muddy Sunday for all!

This week in training it rained and we were working on passing and our movement working down the pitch. On Sunday morning it rained a lot and the girls were almost swimming in mud!

We started with a different set up this week which saw Crystal and Mia up front for the first time together, supported by Edie and Chloe in the middle. Grace, Keeley, Sienna and Scarlett at the back with Olivia in goal. Some new partnerships to develop and we had a brilliantly muddy start to the game with all the girls showing real enthusiasm and drive. We attacked right from the start with Grace and Crystal linking up to set the little whippet of toward the goal. The long grass didn’t help with anything but the girls quickly realised what they’d need to do to score a goal. 

And they all kept going for it, communicating, driving, working with each other and working the space. The opposition could only watch at times as our pace and fancy feet took over. Crystal showed some superb ball skills today and is never afraid to take on the opposition but today her confidence was high and she had Grace behind and Edie and Chloe to her right her supporting all the way. She fantastic link up play and passing saw the ball in front of goal many times with lots of shots but great saves by the Belper Keeper. 

Keeley and Mia on the right moved together like poetry in motion creating lots of chances, and if the ball went off where it wasn’t supposed to, they pressed and pressed and pressed until they got it back! Chloe and Edie were dancing round each other and covering the spaces that needed to be covered, tackled hard and won ball and started to attack, drawing the opposition to them before slipping the ball forward for either Crystal or Mia.

When the ball went to our defending end, Olivia was communicating to Sienna and Scarlett, another new pairing, and they all worked well together. Listening and clearing the ball away from danger, as you’d expect but they also thought about where to out the ball, sometime going back to the Keeper who could start the play from the back – attack from the back!

The passing today was thought about, controlled, considered and there was some absolutely phenomenal passages of play with the entire team thinking about what pass to give, when and what movement should be made. It was like seeing a rainbow in the storm, so so good and testament to how hard the girls have worked this week

And exactly 10 minutes in to the game, this happened….

The ball came out of the defence from Scarlett, who passed the ball up to Edie in the middle, she tapped it round the opposition to flick the back on to Grace. Under pressure, she calmed turned and passed it Back to Sienna who looked up to see Keeley starting to run down the right wing. A confident boomer up to Keeley who ran on to the ball and passed up to Mia. There wasn’t enough space and the ball was taken by the opposition but Mia wasn’t finished with that ball and she pressed and forced the ball back towards the corner, and then forced a poor pass from the defender and Keeley jumped straight on to the ball, drove toward the goal and smashed it passed the keeper! A great team goal from everyone, they all worked hard for it! 

The attack didn’t stop from the team and passing was fantastic, even with the rain falling and everyone being completely drenched, we carried on.

We had a few corners but the pitch made it a bit difficult to get the ball up the slope and in front of the goal but the movement and communication from the team was lovely!

From a corner, the ball went short to Grace, then back to Crystal who swung it in front of goal, it took a deflection and went out towards Chloe who was like a silent assassin, waiting for the opportunity to run on to the ball and pout her boot through it….. And she only went and scored! A great finish from today’s Captain!

Half Time score 2-0

The second half saw Evie come on at Centre Mid, Sharay on the left wing and Isla in defence.

Sharay was flying down the wing as usual and her pace was fast as usual and she was working the ball well with Edie and Evie in the middle, to keep pressurising their defence. With Evie pushing forward, Edie turned tactical and through about covering the space in case the ball was turned over by the opposition. She is incredible to think about this as such a young age, maybe a coach in the making!

Our defence had a bit more to do in the second half with Sienna and Isla working really well together at the back, both using their pace and strength to disrupt any attack going their way! A few times their attack slipped through and had to face Olivia. With mud on her face, she meant business and made herself , big, tall and scary enough to put anyone off. She made some cracking saves and even ended up in the mud, as I expected would happen! Not to e outdone, Sienna had a slide in the mud and got a muddy, wet bum for her trouble and then Grace “I always fall over” had a go too but everyone else stayed on their feet.

Persistent Evie, always attacking, never giving up, will not stop, she is relentless and always supports her team, gives them strength in the centre and today was no different! 10 minutes on the pitch and she’d put the ball in the back of the net – the team must have moved fast on this one because I didn’t even see it as I was trying to get Crystal’s hands warm as she forgot her gloves!

A few minutes later, Evie scored again and this tie I did see it! As always, a great finish from the youngster and a lovely team celebration afterwards 😊

Towards the end of the game, a penalty was given for a hand ball in the area and a powerful strike saw Olivia go the right way but just missed it and the score was 4-1. The rain didn’t stop but neither did we and the girls played every minute ;like it was the first minute of the game and achieved a fantastic result to start the new season!

GOTG went to Grace for her brilliance, tactical thinking, determination, tackling, turns, passing and patience. She’s back to her best and played out of her usual position at left back! Grace really thought about what her opposition player was doing and made a nuisance of herself by getting in the way, whipping the ball away from their feet, made some amazing passes to our midfield and strikers, it was a show of gorgeousness. She is always so humble in receipt of recognition and just loves to play football with her mates but let me tell you this Grace – you are brilliant and so amazing to watch on the pitch… even when you fall on your bum!

Next week we’re playing Ravenshead, last time we met it ended 1-1 and the girls don’t want to re-live that game!

U12 Thunder v Southwell

Player of the Match: Daisy

 

U13 v Nottingham Forest

Player of the Match: Hollie

 

1st Team v Lincoln Moorlands

The pitch was soft and heavy but given the recent weather conditions we were delighted that the game was on as it gave us an opportunity to build on our performance from last week and try to secure back to back league wins.

We knew that Lincoln Moorlands could offer a serious threat so a positive start would be vital in allowing us to dominate the midfield area and really take the game to the opposition. The match day squad was at the maximum of 16 so we knew this was the strongest match day line up so far this season. We opted to play 3-5-2 with the aim of pushing the striking partnership of Nat and Demi right up against the opposition with Jen just behind them at the point of a midfield triangle with Shell and Hannah as the 2 defensive midfielders. This also offered some protection to a back 3 of Alex, Shauna and Courtney. This gave the wing-backs of Ellie Sims and Mollie licence to join the attack when possible and of course the ever-reliable Lou was in goal. This left us with probably the strongest bench we have ever had; Amelia, Amy, Heidi, Henna and Megan. 

The players got off to a good start and really did take the game by the scruff of the neck from the first kick. We created several good chances and were constantly pressing Lincoln Moorlands, giving them no time to settle. This pressure paid off after 15 minutes when their keeper did well to get her body behind a long range shot from Shell that landed just in front of her, as the ball rebounded off her Nat was the quickest to react and fire the ball into the bottom corner. As the stats show Nat has been on fire recently and her poachers instinct saw her bag her second goal in similar fashion only 3 minutes later as the keeper blocked a shot from Mollie and Nat fired in the rebound. Nat then sealed an amazing 15 minute hat-trick when great work from Demi produced a perfect through ball and Nat was able to fire it low into the bottom corner leaving 2 defenders trailing in her wake.

Having reached 3-0 after 30 minutes it gave us an ideal opportunity to fully use our 5 roll on roll off subs. It was great to see Megan able to get some time on the pitch following her recovery from her broken knee-cap, Amelia has also fully recovered from her hip problem, Amy gave her usual solid performance and Heidi and Henna both worked hard as they look to achieve full match fitness. 

Inevitably so may substitutions did affect the flow of the game but we continued to work hard and created some really good chances, with the opposition keeper making several good saves.

I think it is fair to say Mollie’s confidence was fairly low when she joined us at the start of the season and we have been working with her to gradually build this up. She has made real progress in recent games and as part of the many substitutions I decided to give her a run up front. Everyone was delighted for her when she hit our 4th goal. From the edge of the box on the right hand side she hit a dipping shot across the goal, the keeper tried to block it with her feet but it went straight through her and into the net. A keeper error but just reward for our continuous pressure.

To their credit the opposition continued to battle and did have several counter-attacks but they grew increasingly frustrated as our defence dealt with everything thrown at them. Lou didn’t have lots to do but was equal to everything and her calm footwork allowed the defence to use the back pass comfortably, making her a 4th defender and allowing us to rebuild from the back.

Demi had been unfortunate to see several attempts blocked, saved and even cleared off the line so it was with some relief on the 86th minute when she finally got on the score sheet to make it 5-0, her cool finish after Nat’s shot was only parried brought the biggest cheer of the match from our rather crowded bench.

There were many excellent performance today and the opposition wisely chose Alex as the player of the match as she was again outstanding. We gave the player of the match for the opposition to their keeper whose string of fine saves kept the final score down, As I congratulated her at the end of the game she said “I did my best but it was a like a constant barrage”.

I could go on and on about how well the team did today in every area but such are the standards we have set ourselves we still see plenty of things we can work on to improve. We have scored 17 goals in our last 3 games but I still want us to be more clinical with our chances, the midfield create lots of chances but I still want to improve our possession, passing and game management, we have real quality in defence and they did so well to earn their clean sheet today but we want more clean sheets.

Make no mistake I am very happy with the progress we are making, the performances are getting better each game but my belief in this squad is such that the performance today was about 75% of what we can achieve this season. The great thing is I know everyone connected with the team shares the same hunger and desire to continually improve, and it is that above all else that will deliver more success this season.

Of course their will be set-backs and problems along the way but this squad is more than up to the challenge.