First loss of the season

U13s sixth game of the season was away to Cheadle. We had 11 girls only.

It was one of those days that before the game had started Steph had to get them motivated and focused, which she did.

I had an idea on what our strongest set up would have been but this went out of the window with certain demands and requests. At the end everyone pushed themselves (not to their limits but towards it) and gave a good effort which was not sufficient to win the game.

All good things come to an end, so came our winning start to the season. Cheadle were well organised, they had the hunger for the ball, they put the numbers in their when they went after a ball and came out deserved winners yesterday. We lost 7 -4 at the end.

On the day we were well below our opponents but on a good day this 11 should have and will beat Cheadle if we put the effort and play for the team. Even though we were not playing that well we finished the first half 4 - 3 ahead. In the second half, we pushed for goals but did not score any and could not stop them score 4 and ended up losing the game 7 - 4.

First half, Sophie was in goal and she made some great saves to keep us in the game. Defence did their duty and so did Ana Green supporting the defence. Other midfield players were not consistently coming back to help the defence. We were a bit too rushed in the attack which meant that defence was not getting enough time to recover or the midfield did not have time to run back. When we played well by passing quickly and accurately it was a delight to watch us, but we just did not do enough of this throughout the game.

Second half, Emma Whitley went in goal and she made some good saves too. Thank you to both the keepers. In the second half besides the defence and Ana, Emily Meppen was the one that tried her best to help in defence, whilst the rest of the midfield were very often still stuck in the mud up front when Cheadle were attacking us.

It was very muddy in front of the Cheadle goal in the second half and the balls did get stuck there (so did some of our players) but as the game went on the tiredness set in even further and made our task to win even harder to achieve. We needed more players like Ana who was everywhere on the field full of energy and desire to win the ball. She was also chosen by Steph as our star player for all areas!

We need to put this game quickly behind us and learn from it. I am sure we are going to bounce back from this but we need to make sure we play like a team. We need to stop silly passes or passes into crowded areas. When we are short in numbers and tired we need to learn to preserve our energy by playing clever (quick passes into space).

In total we had around 9 proper shots on goal and scored only 4 goals from these shots. Our lowest attempt on goals this season.

Goal scorers: Ana Green (2x), Jodie Pollard (1x) and Emma Whitley (1x).

Things we need to work to make our play even better are:
• Wright attitude when we put our kit and go on that field.
• Play as a unit / team.
• Passing. Tighter and more accurate passes. Eliminating silly and dangerous passes.
• Some talking going on but need to talk more.

Player of the day:

Defence - Ana Green.
Midfield - Ana Green. Tirelessly chasing balls in defence, midfield and supporting attack. MVP
Attack - Ana Green.