Arnold Eagles Lightning v Lowdham FC U12 Girls, Sunday 15th September

A great team performance from yesterday’s game with the girls showing a huge improvement after the last game and a tough (but fun) training session. We worked on attacking with the ball and thinking about how many touches we had before doing something with it.
All the girls had their heads up, looking for options when they had the ball and a beautiful thing happened when all the team looked and made their moves to support multiple options – for a team that have just started to play 9v9 with the offside rule and a new formation, this was fantastic to watch!

We had a strong start and from the kick off, Crystal received the ball and made a dynamic and determined run down the left wing, with 2 opposition players with her. She turned and cut on field before whipping the ball across the in to the box where Evie was waiting to pounce on the ball and slotted in past the keeper. A few minutes later, Crystal the whippet was at it again and Evie making a clever run waiting for the cross… pouncing again and scored her second goal before we got to 5 minutes! Lowdham came back fighting and broke through our defence, causing confusion and Olivia was one on one with the Lowdham striker, who powered it past her to make the score 2-1.

Lowdham played some lovely football today but the Super Squad were on form and enjoying playing, so much so that they relaxed in to it and we had some beautiful ball control and passing from everyone to give scoring opportunities to Edie and Chloe. Following a handball in front of goal, Sharay stepped up showing great composure to put the ball in the back of the net.

Play of the day went to Keeley who picked up the ball deep in our defensive half, turned and ran like the wind! Linking up with Grace for a quick one two pass and she flew down the wing before cutting in and unleashing a mighty strike that almost went through the net! I think Keeley ran a marathon on the pitch today and goal is reward for her hard work over the past few weeks.

Amazing things that happened during the game:

Olivia - Decision making and saves. Her best moment coming one on one against a strong and tall player, she looked certain to score but Olivia came out to meet her at the top of the box, standing big and tall, strong and confident and pulled off an amazing save to deny Lowdham a second goal.
Kayleigh – strong defensive line, thinking about where she needed to be. When the opposition broke through Kayleigh was there with some of her signature crunching tackles
Isla – fantastic communication from Isla, talking to her defensive pairing, wing backs and centres, showing she’s a tactical thinker. She made some crucial tackles, standing strong and had clearances that set the attack going
Sienna – Held the defensive line and showing great understanding of the offside rule. Her speed has improved and when the keeper was under pressure, she’d appear like lightning to tackle hard and win the ball
Keeley – so much support from Keeley and she definitely has the fastest feet in the west. Her work rate was intense, always supporting both ends of the pitch
Keira – more support from Keira, always such a tenacious attitude and she pressed her opponents and won a lot of ball to keep the ball up front
Edie – an intelligent tactical thinker with great vision, closing down the opposition before they had chance to run at us. Interceptions, tackles, passing, pressing, Edie did it all today and scored 2 goals with great running, ball control and finishing
Chloe – clever thinking and communication from Chloe pulled the team up the field to play the high press from goal kicks and with some fancy footwork, she beat the defenders to finish with style
Crystal – fast feet, vision, crossing, determination and selfless play from Crystal today, a fantastic team player who assisted 5 goals
Grace – ball wining determinator was in play today with clever passing to set the attack in motion and she always found the space to do it
Mia – brilliant movement that kept the opposition guessing and creating a lot of space for her team mates, giving them opportunities to attack
Sharay – unleash the drive in Sharay and she flies, using both feet to control the ball, she’s fast and furious and had confidence to have a shot at goal, narrowly missing by hitting the goal post but great power in her strike!

Girl of the Game went to Evie for her vision, composure, confidence, strength, finishing and being a pillar of strength for her team on the pitch. She thought about her options when the ball came to her and wasn’t afraid to have a go at goal scoring 4 in today’s game. Her work rate is phenomenal, and she never gives up!

The final score was a 10-1 win for Lightning. I’m very proud to be a part of the Super Squad and seeing them enjoy playing and improving each week is incredibly rewarding for me, Laura and Steve.