gU13 13-Oct-07: Urmston Pumas 3-0 Oswald Rd (HT 1-0)

It was a very good match, we all played our best and by the end of it we were all hot and sweaty. In the first half we started off well, we were all ready for the match and all hyped up from eating far too many sweets before hand. It was all going well and Katie nearly scored in the first ten minutes but their defenders blocked it. (That was really annoying). After running about for another 2 minutes after Katie nearly scored, Kenesha received a pass from Katie, ran up to the box and took a shot, unfortunately it missed. (How annoying, it was a good shot though). After that shot, about 6 minutes later, one of Urmston Ruby’s players got the ball and took a shot at the goal. Becky saved it but then they got the rebound and ran up to the box and Becky ran out of the goal to try and block it even though I was on the player and they shot and it went in. About three minutes later the whistle blew and it was half time. We all walked off the pitch with our heads up because we didn’t care about the goal because we knew we could win it back or at least try to. After half time we went back on and I shouted “Come on Oswald Road”. When we kicked off, Katie received the ball and took another shot, unfortunately it missed again!!! (It was a very powerful shot though; I don’t know how it missed). Katie took a lot of other shots too though but unfortunately they all missed too. Zoë also had a good chance to score too, she received a pass from Tara, ran to the box and took a shot – unfortunately that one missed too!!! (Ahhhhh that is so annoying). In the end, Urmston managed to score another two goals and that made it three-nil to them but we didn’t really mind because that was the best score we’ve had this season. At the end of the day we were proud of ourselves and we all went home with smiles on our faces!!

By Sophie Pointon

This game – against Urmston Pumas – was absolutely brilliant! Even though we were a player down again and had a badly hurt goalkeeper (who kept on playing), we only lost 3-0 – and all the goals were at the end of both halves when we were tired and losing concentration. In fact, at the beginning of the second half we were practically encamped in their half and would have got a couple of goals but for some lucky & desperate defending. The players who had played really well the previous week actually played even better in this game – all the coaches were very impressed. And we know that we’re only going to get more skilful, fitter and faster.

The first half was very tight with our defenders, Shaye and Sophie, playing very well, staying goalside and clearing the ball well when they got the ball. Ruqayyah and Katie tackled and distributed the ball excellently and Zoe, Kenesha and Tara ran tirelessly after the ball. Tara didn’t see too much of the ball at first as she was up on her own but she came back to help out and played a valuable role in defence. We thought we’d end the first half on 0-0 but in the last minutes the ball was punted up to our penalty area and the coaches messed up totally – we shouted at Becky to come out (I forgot she had hurt her back and couldn’t bend down) instead of realising that Sophie, Shaye and Ruq were rushing back to block the attack. A Pumas attacker got to the ball before Becky could clear it and passed it to another attacker in front of the, by now, empty goal and she struck it into the net.

In the second half, the Ozzies started off by throwing attack after attack forward but our inexperience in front of goal cost us dear and we didn’t convert any of the chances – our shots were straight at the goalie, or the Pumas defenders surrounded out attackers and got the ball off them or our attacker was shouldered off the ball (we need practice at not being barged off the ball). The Pumas were a little shell shocked by our start but soon got their act together and started to regain control of the game when our team got tired. However, our defenders and midfield played extremely well and held them off and set up more Ozzie attacks. In the end though we got too tired and the Pumas worked two very good moves to score twice near the end of the second half. This was another good game for the still improving Oswald Rd team – despite the Pumas missing a couple of their good players, we still had to play really well to keep the score low and we could have scored a couple of goals.

Kamal

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