07 Jan 2006, Girls U11: Oswald Rd 0 – 4 Woodbank Wanderers (HT:0-3)

First game after the long xmas break and boy did it show! We never really got out of second gear, and the game was a bit of a disaster with little to shout home about. Across the team we were slow and standing off tackles. Its easy to see how to win a game from the touchline and the Woodbank defenders were bunching round the ball when we attacked, and we just needed to remember how to pass the ball from the bunch to find space. The truth was in the first half we didn’t get a shot on target and went into the break 3-0 down despite some valiant goalkeeping from Becks who eventually took player of the day. In the second half we brightened up a bit but still failed to convince ourselves that we are a good team. When they scored their fourth goal the game was over and we never looked the part. Woodbank were very athletic and their players covered a lot of ground in the game and we were a bit flat ??.Oh well??? We play them again in three weeks time . Watch this space!

by MikeG

This game had a very slow start as far as Oswald Rd was concerned – most of our players still thought it was Christmas and wandered about half-asleep, watching the Wanderer attackers, and half-heartedly trying to get the ball off them. Only Chantelle was awake, as she buzzed around trying to get the ball and drive us forward. SophieA was finally drawn back from attack in an attempt to get a touch of the ball and she and Chantelle tried to set up attacks. Ruqayyah stayed up front and slowly froze, waiting for the ball. Meanwhile Woodbank Wandered all over our half and scored three soft goals as we dreamily watched them. The second half was much better, Ruqayyah was pulled back in order to shore up the defence and she finally woke up as well. Katie got annoyed and decided to get more active all over midfield so she played much better. Suddenly we had some attacks and made a few chances! Unfortunately their goalie dealt with all our shots, or they went wide. However our defending was much better and we only let in one goal in the second half. It’s a shame we didn’t do better as they were only a few points ahead of us.

by Kamal

Team: Becks, Sophie P, Katie, Tanya, Nai, Chantelle, Ruq, Sophie A

Oppositions’ Player of the Match: Katie Shaw

Managers’ Player of the Match: Rebecca Shepherd

Goals: nowt