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 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-Dec-07: Oswald Rd 3-8 Hillgate Blues (HT 1-5)

The team played really well against Hillgate Blues last week, especially since it was so cold all the other games were cancelled. It rained practically all the way through, and everyone got a bit fed up towards the end. It was our first mach with a full team plus a sub; this was really good because it meant that we all got a rest at some point. The score was 3-8 and Zoë scored 1, Katie scored 2 goals; assists were from Zoë, Tara and Kenesha.

Roisin

At the start of the match we were sat in the car because we thought it was cancelled then the ref turned up. In the first half Becky done some good saves. The final score was 3-8.

Becky – played good in net.
Sophie – played well and done good kicks.
Shaye – sprinting down the pitch to get the ball.
Rudi – played excellent for her first match and nearly scored two goals.
Ruki – played good and controlled the ball.
Kenesha – played well skilling out the defenders.
Katie – played very very good. Controlling the ball.
Taz – played good running up and down the pitch.
Zoe – played very very good running up and down the pitch and skilling out people.

Tara

Well. Again we were hoping that this would be the first game that we would have a full team. Oh well. Guess what happened? Exactly. We had a full team! Not just that – we even had a substitute! So, of course, we thought the match would get cancelled as it had rained heavily all Thursday. However, Friday was merely mildly damp and Saturday dawned dry … then it started to rain. Oh. No.

We went to Partington anyway and the rain let up for a bit. The pitches were all soaking. One by one, all the other matches were called off by the referees, but out ref looked at our pitch (admittedly the best of the 9-a-side pitches)) and decided that the puddles in both goals could be cleared and weren’t a good enough reason to cancel the match. So Mark went off to the hut to find some large squeegee brooms and he swept the water off the goal lines – also incidentally making them muddier but we all know that’s what goalies love! ;-) Don’t we? Heh heh.

It started raining at the kickoff and didn’t stop until we were near the end of the second half, but the girls kept on going through the rain and the mud. The game started off well with our defenders holding off Hillgate’s fast attackers and we also had a few attacks of our own. Rudi did brilliantly in her makeshift role in mid-field (we couldn’t put her in goal yet as she’s not had enough practice) – in fact, she had a few chances on goal and only her inexperience and Hillgate’s goalie kept the ball out of goal. Hillgate soon pierced our defence and were 0-3 up by the 21^st minute (helped by the usual assortment of mistakes from us). Then Ruqayyah took the ball off them and ran past a couple Hillgate players, she passed out to Zoe who went past one player and passed it to Katie. Katie ran at an angle past the rest of the defenders and swept the ball into goal. A goal! This galvanised Hillgate and they pressed us back and scored two more good goals.

The second half was much better as the team didn’t lose concentration for quite a while and kept going at Hillgate. Hillgate scored a lucky goal at the beginning but we pressed forward successfully and Ruqayyah, Katie and Tara combined well to get the ball down the left wing and then Tara crossed beautifully to Zoe who ran intelligently onto the ball and knocked it into goal. Kenesha was also playing well and she also set up a goal, passing the ball to Katie to run at the Hillgate defence and whack the ball into goal. Hillgate did manage to get a couple of goals as we tired towards the end of the game but overall we played really well. We’re doing much better in closing down attackers, staying goal-side, and pushing them out. Our clearances from defence are also much improved and we can now string together quite a few passes in midfield. Things we need to improve are defensive support play and passing or shooting on the run. We’re getting there.

Kamal

Goals: Katie(Zoe) 27’; Zoe(Tara) 17’, Katie(Kenesha) 23’
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Ruqayyah Hashmi
Managers’ Player of the Match: Zoe-Lea Dale
Team, 9 from (s): (fwd) Zoë, Kenesha (mid) Roisin(s), Tara(s), Katie, Rudi(s), (def) Shaye(s), Ruqayyah, Sophie(s), (gk) Rebecca(c)

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

GU12 20-Jan-07: Hillgate Blues 2-0 Oswald Rd (HT 1-0)

It was a rusty Oswald Team that struggled to get to grips with a lively Hillgate team. The long Christmas break showed what not playing for 6 weeks does to a team. Oswald started very slowly and looked lost for the first ten minutes. We were soon 1-0 down. We battled against a very strong wind and made a few chances. Jazz on her debut soon got into the game and helped the defence become a little more effective. Alongside her Tanya and Ruq soon found their feet. A very wet and muddy Beck kept her spirits up in goal, and did what she had to do.

After half time we played with the wind, and a change of wind gave us a change of fortune, on the very heavy pitch. We looked better and made several chances, one on one, and four against two, but it wasn’t our day. Zoe kept battling on the wing, and Sophie started to link up well with Katie and Taz. But the goal which would have lifted us just didn’t come, and possibly demoralized us a little. It was Hillgate who killed the game when their player of the day scored a solo effort which Becks could do little about. Sophi A. took all the honours, player of the day for us and Hillgate.

Mike

An excellent match considering the long lay off with only a few training sessions to keep reflexes in tune. The only symptoms of the month without any games were a few occasions when the defence was a little disorganised – other than that, the team played well all round with lots of our shots just missing goal, or being blocked or saved by their defence and keeper. There was a very strong wind blowing (not quite gale force) and in the first half we were playing into the wind.

This was Jazz’s first game with us, and she played well – starting off a little hesitantly but gaining confidence and playing better and better throughout the game. At the beginning of the game our defence had its worst patch when Hillgate attacked and attacked and we couldn’t clear the ball except to one of their players. In the fifth minute, another semi-clearance went to one of their good players who crossed it to an unmarked player in front of goal and Rebecca had no chance with the shot. Aargh!

From this point, we pulled ourselves together and, despite the wind, we strung together some good passes and mounted a few excellent attacks. SofiA just missed a couple of times and also produced some great crosses but our forwards couldn’t quite get a touch into goal, Ruq who normally anticipates SofiA’s crosses was busy in defence. Our defence was looking better, especially when SofiP was on as she’s a solid right back who doesn’t wander out of position unless there’s a good reason, so Katie and Ruq were able to help midfield and attack when we had the ball. Tanya was a little rusty (missed the training sessions) but was soon just as energetic as before. Rebecca had a great game throughout (pre-muddying her was a good idea) and produced the saves when needed – one an excellent fingertip save to push the ball past the post for a corner.

The second half was mostly ours with the wind behind us, but we still kept missing the goal as Barhill’s obdurate defence held firm. Mike tried swapping players round and more players moved up to help attack leaving Zoe in an unaccustomed defensive role where she played extremely well but still the goal didn’t come despite Tara’s and SofiA’s efforts. Finally one of Barhill’s attacks pierced our stretched defence with their best player stretching to hit the ball in off the post.

Overall we played really well and with a little bit less rust we’d have done a lot better.

Kamal

Team: SophieA, Jazz, Tara, Ruqayyah, Zoë, Tanya, SophieP, Katie, Rebecca
Goals (& Assists): nowt
Opposition’s Player of the Match: SophieA
Managers’ Player of the Match: SophieA (Jazz close 2^nd)

GU12 11-Nov-06: Oswald Rd 1-1 Hillgate Blues (HT 1-0)

After some cunning tactical changes (masterminded by Kamal) the Os played some attractive football in this close encounter of the third kind. Only giving them a silly goal straight from the kick off gave Hillgate something to take home. Today strikers Zoe and Tara switched from front to back to deputise for the missing Sophie P. and in a bold move, Katie went in net all game and Becks played up front alongside Sophie A. and Ruq.

This well crafted wizardry soon paid off with Becks looking like an old fashioned centre forward bustling players off the ball and setting up Sophie A. and Ruq to move forward. Our goal was a combination of these three putting some lovely passing together, Becks slipped a ball to Ruq, Sophie moved to space, Becks intelligently moved wide and took a defender with her leaving Ruq a tiny gap to slip a perfect ball through to Sophie A. who was one on one with the keeper. It was like Morecambe and Wise, Ruq set up the joke, and Sophie delivered the punch line.

Chances came and went for both sides and good goalkeeping at both ends kept things even.

The second half started with us allowing the Hillgate striker to literally walk round five (!) players and poke the ball home, and all that hard work was gone to waste. However we battled on. Tanya was graceful and inspirational and made several fabulous forward runs, dancing round the Hillgate defence time and time again. Tara was confident and comfortable in central defence and ran it well, proving she is a great all rounder. Zoe was more in the game and played a usefull contribution. Ruq enjoyed her midfield role and looked confident all round. Becks was big and strong and enjoyed her time ‘out’.

Again only time denied us what could have been a good win, bearing in mind they beat us 4-2 last time. But, overall, a much better performance than last week. Nice one Kamal!

Mike

Team: SophieA, Tara, Ruqayyah, Zoë, Tanya, Katie, Rebecca
Goals (& Assists): 1^st half – SofiA (Ruq)
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Katie
Managers’ Player of the Match: Ruqayyah

GU12 23-Sep-06: Oswald Rd 2-4 Hillgate Blues (HT 0-3)

This was definitely a game of two halves – in the first half Oswald Rd set off slowly, hesitant and unsure, like a little baby taking its first steps … and falling flat on its face. The defenders didn’t mark or pressurise Hillgate’s attackers, the midfield ran around like headless chickens and the attackers stood around, sleepily watching the horror unfold. There were signs of intelligent footballing life towards the end but we shall draw a veil over the first half – suffice to say that we ended the half 0-3 down (an unfortunate own goal amongst the trio). Note that the training session on Thursday had been quite different to the one the week before with lots of whingeing and whining. Players barely getting up to a slow, slow, jog during exercises – and the attitude carried over into the beginning of this game.

What a difference in the second half! The coaches didn’t need to say much – the players themselves didn’t believe how bad they’d been in the first half and they set off like a pack of wolves on the hunt. Hillgate’s attacks were repulsed by our defence, and their defence was sorely tested by the Ozzie’s revitalised midfield and attack. Attack after attack was flung forward but Hillgate’s goalie and defenders managed to hang on and only a vicious corner from Tara got past them for a goal. Still we kept up the pressure and they got a breakaway goal, but our heads didn’t go down and we caused such confusion in their area that one of them caught the ball and we were awarded a penalty for the handball. Tara whacked the ball into the net without a second thought. Though we still pressed hard, their defence managed to hold on. We won the half 2-1 but lost the game 2-4. Next time we’ll give them a much better game!

Kamal

Team: SophieA, Tara, Ruqayyah, Sukdev, SophieP, Katie, Rebecca
Goals: 2^nd half – Tara x2
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Sukdev
Managers’ Player of the Match: ??