14 Jan 2006, Girls U11: Oswald Rd 1 – 2 Deans Sports (HT:0-2)

What seems to be going on at the moment is a lack of belief in ourselves. We went into this game and were capable of winning, but lacked that killer instinct to bury the game early on. It was an even first half and we let in two scrappy scrambled goals and found ourselves two down at half time with a hill to climb. However we went into round two looking much better and were soon looking the better team, Katie who was struggling with a headache made some great through passes to Sophie A and Ruq who were creating chances, and only that lack of total self confidence stopped us from wrapping the game up, Tanya was playing in midfield / defence and was playing with heart and soul which earned her player of the day. The defence of Angie / Sophie P. were dealing with everything and Sukdev was strong after coming out of goal. Sophie A. was looking back to her old self and planted a nice shot round the Deans keeper. Which lifted the side but despite raining in shots on the Deans goal we couldn’t break through, and the whistle came too early. Over the next few weeks we have some tough games which will be a stern test of our character..Will we cave in or survive ?

by MikeG

This was a much better game than last week. We started off in similar fashion to the second half against Woodbank Wanderers with a good defence – Anghie was back with us (yay!) and dealt effectively with most attacks down her side. Deans’ excellent no.9 kept ripping past our players but our defenders held them off. Our attackers had a few chances but were a bit rusty as they kept hitting wide or straight at the goalie. Eventually Deans scored, helped by a handball that the referee didn’t spot, their player holding off our defenders and guiding it past Sukdev. We attacked again but were stymied by good goalkeeping and rusty passing between our attackers. Deans won a series of corners and, from one of them, indecision in defence proved fatal as everyone left it for each other to clear the ball and a Deans foot poked the ball into goal.

The second half was even better again and we were nearly back to our pre-December best – for defence and midfield at least, the attack was still a bit rusty. Sukdev came out of goal and started tackling and passing very well in midfield, allowing Tanya to concentrate on their no.9 – and suddenly the no.9 was being stopped! Rebecca was quick and positive in goal whenever she was called into action, and with defence solid now, the midfield started to motor – helped by Ruqayyah and Sophie dropping back to help out when needed. Attacks started to mount up with Katie also moving forward from midfield with the ball and a quick pass from her saw SophieA shoot low into the corner of the goal! The attackers kept going, getting better and better but good defence from Deans saw the attackers being either pushed wide or tackled just as they were about to shoot. A bit more practice will soon see our attackers crossing well and whacking the balls into goal quickly as they used to do.

If we’d played this game and the previous game the way we played in the second half, we would have won both games and be mid-table ahead of both the other teams instead of near the bottom behind Deans. We will have to put in some good games to get back to our best position but I’m sure we’ll do it!

by Kamal

Team: Sukdev, Becks, Ang, Katie, Sophie P., Tanya, Ruq, Sophie A

Oppositions’ Player of the Match: Ruqayyah Hashmi

Managers’ Player of the Match: Tanya Nawaz

Goals: 2^nd half – SophieA