Hawks v Lowdham
Posted by Richard Povey on 24 May 2021
Date: 23 May 2021 / Venue: Epperstone Village Hall
Arnold Eagles Hawks u11s vs Lowdham Colts u11s Cup Game
Today’s starting line-up was:
Katie (GK), Jess, Izzy, Bethany, Heidi, Peyton & Ava. The subs were Thea, Lucy & MIllie.
We arrived in good spirits ahead of the Cup Quarter Final game. The Hawks began warming up in the long grass of the Lowdham pitch, readying themselves for kick-off.
From the whistle, the Hawks put Lowdham under immediate pressure, pinning them into their half of the pitch. The Hawks, like last week, had numerous chances to score, with some great movement and passing. Unfortunately, these chances either flashed wide of the goal or were very well closed out by the Lowdham defence.
Jess and Izzy were having a great start to the game, with Jess in particular showing great composure on the ball. After 15mins, Thea came on to give Izzy a rest following a strong early display, with Thea doing what Thea does best by timing her tackles to perfection. Against the run of play however, Lowdham had an attack from a long throw from the right. The ball found it’s way to the left hand side of the penalty area and despite being closed down by Katie in goal, the Lowdham player slotted the ball into the net for 1-0.
Peyton, much like last week, ran the centre of the pitchoffering an outlet to our defenders, whilst driving forward and releasing the ball to the Hawk’s wide players. It was this great play, which saw the Hawks equalise from a fine Bethany goal.Shortly after levelling, Katie made two important stops. The first, pushing the ball round the post for a corner and the second, deflecting a shot with her leg by coming out bravely. The Hawks took advantage of this with some great link up play between Jess, Heidi and finally Lucy, who lobbed the keeper for her second Hawks goal.
The first half came to an end with the Hawks 2-1 up, after some fantastic passing, running into space but certainly not a foregone conclusion given Lowdham’s efforts.
A change of keeper saw Ava replace Katie, with Ava hopeful to keep the Lowdham attacks to a minimum. Ava performed very confidently, diving at feet and on one occasion making herself as big as possible to save a shot low down to her left. This certainly rallied the Hawks into their next attack with Izzy making a great pass down the wing to Heidi, who passed inside to Peyton, laying it off to Millie who made no mistake with her shot, extending the Hawks lead to 3-1.
Further substitutions then came giving some of the girls a well-earned rest. Jess, who was having a really good game, found herself just outside the box, received the ball and swiftly dispatched it into the bottom corner! 4-1!
The Hawks defence was breached once more in the final minute, when a Lowdham attack on the right found one of their strikers, slotting her shot past Ava.
At the final whistle, it was three cheers to Lowdham, with the Hawks going through to the Semi-Finals of the Cup. It was yet again, a very assured performance overall with all girls showing confidence and awareness on the ball; but most of all playing our style of football.
Player of the Match for an excellent performance went to Jess. Well done!