gU13 09-Feb-08: Urmston Pumas 3-0 Oswald Rd (HT 1-0)

1^st half…

Our previous best score against them was 3-0, them with their weaker team out. This match we started expecting a better score then normal. There was a bit of a problem since this was their stronger team, and they had subs. whereas we only had a full time team. We warmed up, and took our positions on the pitch. Our Keeper Katie, the defenders Shaye, Rudi and Sophie, midfielders Tara, and me, and finally the strikers Becky- the captain- Zoë, and Kenesha. We had first kick, the usual plan. The first person in the middle kicks to the other, then to the centre mid, who would either whack it up, or move up a small bit and pass. The first half was battled evenly and both sides played very well. We had some chances, and some corners. They also had some chances, which we defended well. Then finally close to the second half, they managed to score. That didn’t get us down though; this was the best we’d played so far. Soon later the whistle blew, and both teams crowded off for a rest.

2^nd half…

The second half we tried harder, determined not to let in another goal. But still they scored 2 more. The first of them was scored from a corner, or a throw-in taken close. There was a struggle in the box first then someone shot at the goal. The ball instead headed for Katie, who at this point swapped out for Becks, and rebounded off her leg into the goal. Very unfortunate and accidental, we carried on. The third goal was scored when I had the ball and, hearing no one shout “Man on”, had the ball taken off me from behind. The defenders hadn’t expected this and were caught unawares. The result of which was a goal. In the end the score was 3-0, but that was still brilliant considering this was their stronger team.

Ruqayyah

Roisin missed this game again – I think she was still not well enough to play (she’d missed training as well), but after a good training session on Thursday the team was full of beans. Yusaf had come along and he helped warm up with some kicking exercises at the goalie. Katie had a leg injury so she started in goal – it was a left leg injury and she thought she’d be okay with goal kicks. She started off kicking well but Tara and Rudi took a few goalkicks as well.

We started the first half defending well and throwing a few attacks forward. The Pumas best goal came on 9 minutes after one of our attacks was stopped by their defence – some quick passing and running from them took the ball past our defenders and a good shot went in past Katie. The rest of the half was very even with Oswald Rd putting together lots of attacks and our defence holding together well. Their defence was very quick to surround our attackers and we couldn’t get the ball past them or make enough room to get in good shots on goal – otherwise we’d have been ahead after the first half.

The Pumas came out strong in the second half and kept us penned back for most of the half. Katie came out of goal and Becky went into goal, so our midfield was strengthened and the attack weakened but we still managed to put together some attacks and nearly scored twice. It looked like the match would end in a draw but we were getting tired and in the 23^rd minute, a very good corner from the Pumas right into the 6-yard area cannoned off Katie into goal (we gave the goal to the corner taker). And then three minutes later, Ruqayyah took the ball off one of their attackers and was shielding the ball ready to clear when another attacker rushed from behind her (no shouts of “man on” from our mute players) and took the ball from her and kicked it into goal.

This was our best game so far this season – unlike our previous 3-0 loss to the Pumas was against their strongest available team. They only scored one goal in the first half, and we had many attacks in both halves but their defence and midfield was fast and our attackers couldn’t get past them or pass the ball to a free attacker. Their second and third goals were basically mistakes from us so it should really have finished 1-0 or even 1-1. Well done girls!

Kamal

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

A very happy Oswald Road team after their best ever game!

gU13 03-Nov-07: Oswald Rd 1-11 Urmston Pumas (HT 1-4)

The Urmston Pumas match report!

The match against Urmston Pumas wasn’t a great success; mainly because we didn’t win but we put in 100 % and we can’t try any harder. Last time we played against Urmston we lost 3-0 but this match we lost 11-1, so the score slipped a bit since last time we played against them but at least we scored 1.

Positions: Sophie, Ruquaya & Shay (defence) Zoe, Katie & Kenesha (midfield) Tara (striker) Rebecca (goal keeper)
Sophie: Always kept her head up and never stopped trying and when she was marking a player she stayed with them and kept them from scoring.
Ruquaya: Helped Out Rebecca quite a lot and also tackled a lot of the oppositions players and stopped a lot of goals going in.
Shay: Used to be scared of the ball but now she is a very confident player and is tackling a lot more players.
Zoe :Is a very good player, she puts a lot of effort into each and every game, keeps her head up and convinces everyone else to keep on trying even if we are losing.
Katie: Is good at getting past all of the players and scoring goals and she is always there when you need her to give you a helping hand.
Kenesha: Was trying her best and was tackling quite a lot of players.
Tara: Managed to get quite far up with the ball and made some very good passes which lead to us getting at least one goal in.
Rebecca: Is a very good goal keeper because she tries her best when she needs to and isn’t scared of the ball which makes a very good goalie.

Kenesha

This time the Pumas had their full team available but Oswald Rd still did extremely well, scoring our first goal against them. We started off well in the first half, keeping it scoreless until the 20^th minute, our defence playing well and Shaye and Sophie keeping goal side of the attackers and pushing them wide. However, the Pumas kept up the pressure and some fast moves saw them 1 goal up. Then an unfortunate error by the Pumas goalie gave us a free kick just outside their penalty area (Zoë kicked a dropped ball towards the goalie after the ref stopped play for an injury and the goalie got confused and picked it up outside the penalty area). Katie took the freekick and smacked it over the wall into the top right of the goal. That woke up the Pumas and they pressed forwards and got three more goals in the last 7 minutes of the half as we were tiring.

In the second half, our players lost the plot a little at the beginning of the half and the Pumas scored some scrambled goals that should have been cleared. We woke up a little and made them work harder for the rest of their goals but the Pumas fast players were back for this game and they rolled back on as subs and gave our defence a torrid time just as they were tiring (don’t forget no subs and 8 vs 9 again).

Kamal

Goals: Katie (Zoe/freekick)
Opposition’s Player of the Match: Kenesha Bagi
Managers’ Player of the Match: Katie Shaw
Team: (fwd) Tara, (mid) Kenesha, Ruqayyah, Zoë(c), (def) Shaye, Katie, Sophie, (gk) Rebecca

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

gU13 08-Sep-07: Oswald Rd 0-10 Urmston Pumas (HT 0-3)

To start the match the whole team was ready for action Tara was tough, Zoe zippy, Katie was kicking, Sophie was sassy, Ruqayyah was rapid, Shaye was shining, Kenesha krazy and Rebecca was ready everyone was prepared. Unfortunately after the first half we were losing but we were not down hearted we all got back up there and played to the best of our ability. Though we still lost we are going to keep trying.

Katie

This was exactly the same match as our first match last season – except that was on the 9^th of September. And the match was in exactly the same position after the first half, with Urmston Pumas leading by 3 goals to nil. That’s where the similarities end though: Last season we came back but lost 2-4, this season we were handicapped by having one player fewer than the Pumas (8 vs 9), no subs, and playing with two players who had never played a competitive match before. So losing only 0-10 could be considered a kind of victory – we nearly held them to single figures! Goals at 13’, 28’ and 35’ in the 1^st half, and 36’, 37’, 40’, 42’, 49’, 59’ and 62’ in the 2^nd half.

Seriously though, we did play quite well considering our situation – Pumas seem to have got some very good new players who you’d have thought would play for their A team, the Panthers, so they’re much better than before. We will improve of course – our fitness will get better and so will our passing on the much larger pitch. I expect the next match with them to be much closer. The main area we need to improve on is our head-up passing – too many passes were too late, too short or misdirected. A player-by-player analysis follows:

Zoe-Lea: Played very well up forward when she got the ball, came back to help out when needed until she got tired in the 2^nd half. Intelligently went wide a few times to receive the ball.
Tara: Also did well moving up and down the pitch, fighting for the ball. Good running off the ball.
Shaye: Did extremely well for her first match! Showed exceptional speed to keep up with their attackers.
Katie: Good ball skills again, and very good tackles. Excellent passes when players available.
Kenesha: Another very good debut! Possibly our -fittest player, ran her socks off, kept going to the end.
Sophie: More very good and timely defending despite reduced mobility due to badly grazed knee.
Ruqayyah: Back in defence because of late drop-out. Good blocks and clearances, Spotted Zoe’s runs.
Rebecca: Made quite a few saves with hands and feet. Goal kicks getting better. Had no chance with most of the goals – either outnumbered or defenders let ball through them.

Kamal

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