Under 8's v Bottesford

Another great game played by the girls again this morning. 

We had Hollie, Faye, Juliana, Tia & Laila starting with Fallon, Sophie, Elise & Sarika as our subs.

It was a very evenly matched game between our girls and Bottesford FC, all the girls looked like they were really enjoying the match. 

We had some brilliant saves from Hollie today which earned her girl of the game. 

Tia also played really well today as well as having a go in goal. She was looking around when she had the ball to see who was free to pass to, put some good tackles in and made good decisions all round. 

Under 10's v Bottesford

Player of the match: Izzy

Under 11's Rebels v Clifton

Player of the match: Drew

Under 11's (Friendly)

Player of the match: Katie

Under 12's Thunder v Gedling Southbank

PLayer of the match: Mayla

Ladies Develpment v Nottingham Forest Dev

Player of the Match: Danielle Keetley

Ladies 1st Team v Ilkeston (League Cup)

A run of 5 successive defeats was starting erode the team’s confidence but we kept repeating our mantra of ‘focus on the performance and the results will take care of themselves’. The most pleasing thing about winning today’s game was that the player’s hard work and belief in sticking to our principles really paid off and anyone who has watched us over the last couple of weeks would have seen this result coming.

We changed a few things this week including a new warm up routine and as we didn’t have roll on roll off subs we also adjusted our tactics. The aim being to play a 4-4-2 with our quickest wingers to really take the game to Ilkeston in the first half, hopefully get a lead and then bring on our subs to stabilise and control the game through to the end. Great credit to all the players, they executed the plan almost to perfection.

The move for the first goal started in our own half with good determination from Ellie Sims to win the ball and find Jen. Jen produced a perfectly weighted pass to split the opposition’s 2 centre halves and allow Nat to use her pace to power into the box and put a well-placed shot across the keeper for our first goal after 9 minutes. We continued to produce good chances but were a little wasteful in front of goal but also drew some fine saves from the keeper. Ilkeston were determined and a couple of times went close to equalising, Lou’s positioning in goal was excellent and proved vital when a low shot came through a crowd of bodies but Lou was able to save with her feet despite seeing it late.

It took until the 34th minute before we finally got our second. Jen won the ball and rode 2 tackles in midfield before passing to Demi who had dropped in nicely to receive the pass and feed it to Nat who ran straight at goal and slotted a low shot past the keeper. Nat then wrapped up her hat-trick 3 minutes before the break when Jen again found Nat with a fine pass. Nat was able to ride 2 tackles and slot another low shot past the keeper.

After the break we were disappointingly sluggish and Ilkeston pressed us hard as they tried to get a foothold in the game, they were a little unfortunate not to score as they dominated the first 12 minutes from the restart. It took a little bit of magic for us to reassert ourselves on the game. Our 4th goal was achieved in some style when Amy who had only been on the pitch for 3 minutes produced a cheeky heal flick pass to Demi, completely wrong footing the defence. Demi took one touch and smashed in a ‘top bins’ goal to the top right corner from 20 yards, giving the goal keeper no chance.

Two minutes later Demi was at it again, Ellie’s pass from wide on the left found Demi just outside the ‘D’ on the edge of the box, with 2 defenders in close attendance Demi did really well to generate space for a low shot past the keeper to take us to 5-0.

Despite the score-line the Ilkeston keeper was having a very good game, making 4 saves including bravely diving at Nat’s feet. Ilkeston’s persistence paid off when a long, over the top ball was brilliantly controlled by the Ilkeston striker, Hayley Brown, giving her the chance to smash a point blank shot past Lou. Bringing the score to 5-1 after 72 minutes. We responded well to this setback and continued to create more chances. When Nat burst through into the box a late tackle gave us a penalty. In the same move the keeper took a knock on her head as she again dived at feet. Despite this she still got up and saved the penalty taken by Demi but driven too straight. As the ball again came back towards her goal she bravely dived at Demi’s feet and despite making the save she took a blow on the head and unfortunately could not carry on. With only 2 minutes to go and having made all their subs Ilkeston were down to 10 players.

Our 6th goal came in the 89th minute when a great through ball from Chloe found Demi who produced a fine chip over the stand in keeper. The opposition named Demi as player of the match.

We played well as a team today, there wasn’t a single player that did not have a good game. However, I would like to give a special mention to 2 players, firstly Ellie Sims who made the starting line-up for the first time and delivered an impressive performance full of pace, determination and skill. Secondly, Alex who looks increasingly comfortable at left-back and produced several marauding runs down the wing at real pace.

Overall a great team performance, still lots to work on but we must now take this performance level and confidence into our upcoming league games.