gU13 17-Nov-07: Oswald Rd 2-8 Hillgate Blues (HT 1-4)

Today, 17^th November, Oswald Rd JFC played against Hillsgate. The score for this match was 8-2 to them. Even though we lost, all of the players played exceptionally well and fought until the end.

Positions: Ruquaya, Sophie & Shaye (Def); Zoe, Katie & Kenesha (Mid); Tara (Striker); Rebecca (Goalie)
Ruquaya: Played very well. She was tackling a lot of players and helping out our goalie a lot.
Sophie: Passed the ball down the line a lot to Kenesha which led to goals.
Shaye: Played exceptionally well, she tackled very well and kicked the ball up the pitch very well.
Zoe: Stopped a lot of players getting up with the ball and also passed the ball very well.
Katie: Managed to score a goal – she got past all the defenders and did very very well.
Kenesha: Also scored a goal, did very good turns and blocking.
Tara: Did some good runs with the ball but unfortunately only played for about 15 minutes.
Rebecca: Did some very good saves and did what she needed to do to help us get goals in.

Kenesha

This was an absolutely brilliant game from the Oswald Rd team. The coaches had the devious plan of putting our fastest player, Zoë, as the out-and-out striker and moving Ruqayyah to midfield where her reactions and passing would be useful, and placing Tara in the centre of defence where her accurate long shots and sheer grit should have been very helpful. However everyone kept forgetting their positions, Shaye and Sophie were left outnumbered and Hillgate knocked in some quick goals so that we were 3-0 down by the 13^th minute! The plan was then blown to pieces when Tara twisted her knee and didn’t get back on the pitch. Ruqayyah moved back to Tara’s position and the whole team immediately started concentrating and fighting for every ball, the Ozzies stopped all the Hillgate attacks dead. Sophie and Shaye driving the attackers wide so the shots missed, Ruqayyah and Katie fighting for every ball in the middle and Zoë and Kenesha coming back to help and making repeated runs into attack. In fact, Hillgate didn’t score again until the 30^th minute, and before that Katie scored in the 27^th. After receiving the ball from Kenesha, she charged round the Hillgate defenders and whacked a fantastic shot into the top right of the goal (her favourite spot).

The second half started in a similar vein to the first half – Hillgate poured everything forward and tried really hard in the first 15 minutes. They scored 3 goals again in the first 13 minutes. Aargh! We’ll have to remember that next time – we need to wake up quicker! It seemed almost like they outnumbered us…. Hmm, hang on, weren’t we playing 7 against 9? Oh yes, we were outnumbered. Anyway, for the next 20+ minutes, our 7 players held Hillgate’s 9. In the 15^th minute, Kenesha received the ball from Katie and sprang forward at tremendous speed, outpacing the Hillgate defence and knocking the ball past the keeper. Kenesha, Zoe and Katie had more chances (Kenesha could have had a hat trick) but couldn’t get past Hillgate’s massed defence and the keeper, who was quite good (she got our vote for their player of the match). Hillgate scrambled another goal in the 26^th minute but for most of the second half, and half of the first half, Oswald Rd’s 7 players played magnificently against their 9 and so I gave the whole team the manager’s player award!

Kamal

Goals: 1st half: Katie (Kenesha) 27’; 2^nd half: Kenesha (Katie) 15’
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Kenesha Bagi
Managers’ Player of the Match: Oswald Rd (yes, all of them)
Team: (fwd)Zoë(c), (mid) Kenesha, Katie, Ruqayyah, (def) Shaye, Tara, Sophie, (gk) Rebecca