gU13 03-May-08: Hillgate Blues 9-0 Oswald Rd (HT 6-0)

This was Oswald's last match, and it was against Hillgate blues. We hadn't beaten Hillgate this season. But the long term members of our club will remember we used to beat them in 7 aside. All the girl's came in the two cars, and did a quick warm- up. After the warm-up we were assigned tour positions and trudged onto the field.

1^st half

The first half was hard, but we battled on. They were coming in from all sides. A few off sides were noticed for both teams too. We blocked, and saved as many balls as we could. Zoë even had a chance of scoring. The upper field of us worked to score, and the lower defended the ball. Yet despite our efforts they still scored. Overall the 1^st half score was 6-0.

2^nd half

The second half we found a lot easier. A lot more balls were blocked. The defenders almost always got the ball, or blocked it, then booted it up field to our strikers and midfield. We had a lot of throw-ins and a few corners. Chances to score, but sadly we missed. There was a clear massive improvement betweens the two halves.

The first half was 6-0 the second being a brill 2-0. Making an overall 8-0.

Oh well.

After the match we celebrated it being our last, and had a water fight. Using drinks brought and provided. Then all the girls went home.

Ruqayyah Hashmi

The girls tried hard and had some promising moves saved by their goalie and blocked by their defenders. Hillgate needed a lot of pressure before they scored some good goals.

Kamal

Goals: nowt
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Ruqayyah Hashmi
Managers’ Player of the Match: Katie
Team, 9 from (s): (fwd) Zoë, Roisin(s), Kenesha(s) (mid), Tara(s), Katie, Rudi(s), (def) Shaye(s), Ruqayyah, Sophie(c)(s), (gk) Rebecca/Katie

gU13 12-Apr-08: Oswald Rd 0-19 Stockport County (HT 0-10)

Awaiting match report.

Kenesha

Match report coming soon.

Kamal

Goals: nowt
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Sophie Pointon
Managers’ Player of the Match: Ruqayyah Hashmi
Team, 9 from (s): (fwd) Zoë(s), Kenesha(c)(s) Roisin(s) (mid) Tara(s), Katie(s), Rudi(s), (def) Shaye(s), Ruqayyah, Sophie(s), (gk) Rebecca

gU13 15-Mar-08: Hillgate Blues 4-1 Oswald Rd (HT 2-0)

Awaiting match report.

Shaye

Report to come

Kamal

Goals: 2^nd half - Zoe(Roisin) 27’
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Ruqayyah Hashmi
Managers’ Player of the Match: Roisin Blythin-Hammondi
Team: (fwd) Rudi, Ruqayyah (mid) Becky, Zoë, Roisin, (def) Shaye, Tara, Sophie, (gk) Katie

gU13 08-Mar-08: Flixton Girls 12-1 Oswald Rd (HT 4-1)

Awaiting match report.

Sophie

Awaiting match report.

Kamal

Goals: Katie(Ruqayyah) 19’
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Rudi Blake
Managers’ Player of the Match: Ruqayyah Hashmi
Team: (fwd) Zoë, (mid) Tara, Katie, Ruqayyah, (def) Shaye, Rudi, Sophie, (gk) Rebecca (c)

gU13 23-Feb-08: Oswald Rd 1-14 Stockport (HT 0-10) – 2^nd half friendly

Awaiting match report.

Kenesha

This game was held during the mid-term holidays and so we lost Sophie and Katie to visiting grandparents – then Becky caught something and was too sick to play. So we set off with only 7 players – too many to get the match officially postponed but not enough to really give Stockport a tough game. With both regular goalies not playing, we had to put Rudi in goal as she was the only player who had any goalie experience, and she stepped up to the plate and played incredibly well, saving lots of shots and also taking her goal kicks calmly and with intelligence – almost all of them went to one of our players and Stockport intercepted only a very few.

The first half was actually very good for Oswald Rd – we played very well both in defence and in our few attacks. All of Stockport’s goals had to be well worked as our defenders made few mistakes and the midfield supported them well with Ruqayyah especially rocketing all over the pitch. Kenesha was strangely subdued for once – maybe she had too many roles to cover in midfield and defence and gor confused a few times. Rudi made lots of good saves but Stockport had too many shots and spare players and the goals steadily mounted up.

For the second half, we agreed with Stockport (after Lauren Brennan, the pretty ref, checked the rules with League Officials) to complete the match on 0-10, and play the second half as a friendly with Stockport lending us two players – Amy and Kirstie. Both the Stockport players got into their new roles with great gusto, racing around the pitch and stopping loads of Stockport attacks. They even set up attacks for Oswald Rd and finally Ruqayyah and Roisin could push further forward to serve Kenesha and Zoe with more attacking passes. We had many more attacks but Zoe or Kenesha couldn’t manage to convert any of them. Rudi continued to have a great time in goal and after a clearance from Ruqayyah, Amy and Kirstie finally combined to send Amy past the Stockport defenders to score a great goal in the last minute of the game.

The very fair Stockport County report can be found at http://www.stockportcountyladies.com/NewsItem.aspx?id=101 – there’s a good 2^nd half action picture of Ruqayyah who was everywhere on the pitch.

Kamal

Goals: 2^nd half – Amy (Kirsty) 36’
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Rudi Blake
Managers’ Player of the Match: Rudi Blake
Team: (fwd) nowt (mid) Roisin, Zoë, Kenesha (def) Tara, Ruqayyah(c), Shaye, (gk) Rudi

gU13 16-Feb-08: Deans Sports 9-1 Oswald Rd (HT 3-1)

Awaiting match report.

Katie

Shaye and Becky were on holiday for this 2008 rematch against Deans so we only had 8 players but after another good training session on Thursday, we were confident that we wouldn’t fall apart as we had in our first match of 2008. In fact we had another best ever match for the season! Since our no.1 was gallivanting away on holiday, we put Katie in goal. Rudi took Shaye’s position at left back instead of in the middle with Ruqayyah and Tara performing the other main defensive duties.

We started really well, stopped Dean’s first couple of attacks and passed the ball around brilliant from the back to the front. Tara blocked one attack but Deans got the ball back with some good aggressive midfield play. Then Ruqayyah intercepted a Deans pass and, moving forward quickly, she looked up and saw Kenesha out wide – she passed the ball to Kenesha who took off like a rocket but quickly came up against the Deans defence and she put a great through ball to Zoe who ran onto the ball and slotted it past the Deans goalie! We were in the lead! Our first ever lead in the season! Deans were energised – remember they had a full team and we only had 8 players – and came at us hard but, unlike earlier in the year, we were not cowed and fought back just as fiercely. We held off attack after attack and even launched some more attacks but their defence swarmed around Roisin and Zoe, preventing them from scoring another. Finally Deans broke through our defence with a swift passing move that ended in a cross to an unmarked player who scored in the 15^th minute. At the end of a very hard fought half, Deans had scored twice more but our defence had played extremely well and we had given them several more scares with our midfield and forward play.

In the second half we started tiring but still played well – Deans managed to stop us scoring and they scored their goals in two flurries, one in the middle of the half and one near the end of the match. They had started using their extra player to good effect, overloading our defenders with quick attacks but we still carried on playing well and didn’t lose our heads. We made them fight for every goal. Well done Ozzie Girls!

Kamal

Goals: Zoë(Kenesha) 5’
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Zoë-Lea Dale
Managers’ Player of the Match: Roisin Blythin-Hammond
Team: (fwd) Roisin, Zoë (mid) Tara, Ruqayyah, Kenesha (def) Rudi, Sophie, (gk) Katie(c)

gU13 09-Feb-08: Urmston Pumas 3-0 Oswald Rd (HT 1-0)

1^st half…

Our previous best score against them was 3-0, them with their weaker team out. This match we started expecting a better score then normal. There was a bit of a problem since this was their stronger team, and they had subs. whereas we only had a full time team. We warmed up, and took our positions on the pitch. Our Keeper Katie, the defenders Shaye, Rudi and Sophie, midfielders Tara, and me, and finally the strikers Becky- the captain- Zoë, and Kenesha. We had first kick, the usual plan. The first person in the middle kicks to the other, then to the centre mid, who would either whack it up, or move up a small bit and pass. The first half was battled evenly and both sides played very well. We had some chances, and some corners. They also had some chances, which we defended well. Then finally close to the second half, they managed to score. That didn’t get us down though; this was the best we’d played so far. Soon later the whistle blew, and both teams crowded off for a rest.

2^nd half…

The second half we tried harder, determined not to let in another goal. But still they scored 2 more. The first of them was scored from a corner, or a throw-in taken close. There was a struggle in the box first then someone shot at the goal. The ball instead headed for Katie, who at this point swapped out for Becks, and rebounded off her leg into the goal. Very unfortunate and accidental, we carried on. The third goal was scored when I had the ball and, hearing no one shout “Man on”, had the ball taken off me from behind. The defenders hadn’t expected this and were caught unawares. The result of which was a goal. In the end the score was 3-0, but that was still brilliant considering this was their stronger team.

Ruqayyah

Roisin missed this game again – I think she was still not well enough to play (she’d missed training as well), but after a good training session on Thursday the team was full of beans. Yusaf had come along and he helped warm up with some kicking exercises at the goalie. Katie had a leg injury so she started in goal – it was a left leg injury and she thought she’d be okay with goal kicks. She started off kicking well but Tara and Rudi took a few goalkicks as well.

We started the first half defending well and throwing a few attacks forward. The Pumas best goal came on 9 minutes after one of our attacks was stopped by their defence – some quick passing and running from them took the ball past our defenders and a good shot went in past Katie. The rest of the half was very even with Oswald Rd putting together lots of attacks and our defence holding together well. Their defence was very quick to surround our attackers and we couldn’t get the ball past them or make enough room to get in good shots on goal – otherwise we’d have been ahead after the first half.

The Pumas came out strong in the second half and kept us penned back for most of the half. Katie came out of goal and Becky went into goal, so our midfield was strengthened and the attack weakened but we still managed to put together some attacks and nearly scored twice. It looked like the match would end in a draw but we were getting tired and in the 23^rd minute, a very good corner from the Pumas right into the 6-yard area cannoned off Katie into goal (we gave the goal to the corner taker). And then three minutes later, Ruqayyah took the ball off one of their attackers and was shielding the ball ready to clear when another attacker rushed from behind her (no shouts of “man on” from our mute players) and took the ball from her and kicked it into goal.

This was our best game so far this season – unlike our previous 3-0 loss to the Pumas was against their strongest available team. They only scored one goal in the first half, and we had many attacks in both halves but their defence and midfield was fast and our attackers couldn’t get past them or pass the ball to a free attacker. Their second and third goals were basically mistakes from us so it should really have finished 1-0 or even 1-1. Well done girls!

Kamal

Goals: nowt
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Zoe-Lea Dale
Managers’ Player of the Match: Ruqayyah Hashmi
Team: (fwd) Becky(c), Zoë, Kenesha (mid) Tara, Ruqayyah, (def) Shaye, Rudi, Sophie, (gk) Katie

A very happy Oswald Road team after their best ever game!

gU13 26-Jan-08: Stockport County 17-0 Oswald Rd (HT 8-0)

On the 26^th January 2008, Oswald Road Under 13’s girls football team played Stockport County.

Oswald Road team consists of up front Zoe and Kenesha, midfield Tara, Ruqayyah and Katie. In defence was myself (Rudi), Shaye and Sophie, and last but not least goalkeeper Rebecca who played well throughout the match.

Unfortunately we lost 17-0 but even though we are disappointed, we have promised to try harder next match and that we will never give up. The opposition’s player of the match went to Ruqayyah Hashmi and the Manager’s player of the match went to Zoe-Lea Dale.

Oswald road promise to play hard next time.

Rudi

Before the match Roisin called off sick – fortunately everyone else was OK and we had a full team of 9 players. However that didn’t help us much – although we’re now much better than we were before, so are Stockport. Mind you, the gap isn’t 30-0 anymore! Oswald Rd started the game very well – Stockport didn’t score until the 7^th minute, and we also managed to rally quite a few attacks against them – more than we’ve ever had against Stockport before. In fact, in the first five minutes it looked almost an even match as we rebuffed their attacks and launched counter-attacks of our own! Maybe if we hadn’t tried to attack so much we’d have let through fewer goals. The main difference between us this time was that they knew how to finish goals and were faster to the ball. Also they had some very skilful players who needed at least two of our defenders on them – and also Katie and Ruqayyah couldn’t be everywhere. Even with Zoe coming back to help out, we leaked goals and ended the half 8-0 down.

In the second half, we swapped Katie and Becky and, as you’d expect, this made our attack better and our defence worse. Still, until we tired towards the end, we kept Stockport on their toes and held out for appreciable lengths of time. Ruqayyah got Stockport’s vote for Player of the Match because she was everywhere, shoring up our defence and setting up attacks from midfield – yes, she’d remembered her inhaler! Zoe got my vote because she not only kept running forwards for each attack only to be foiled by their good defenders and excellent goalkeeper but she also came back when needed to help out our defence – hmm, I think she must have remembered her inhaler as well! Rudi also played well, with some quick clearances and a good free kick.

Stockport’s report is at http://www.stockportcountyladies.com/NewsItem.aspx?id=93 with a good action picture of Kenesha.

Kamal

Goals: nowt
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Ruqayyah Hashmi
Managers’ Player of the Match: Zoe-Lea Dale
Team: (fwd) Zoë, Kenesha (mid) Tara, Katie, Ruqayyah(c), (def) Shaye, Rudi, Sophie, (gk) Rebecca