Match Report: U11DJD 29/03/25

The Glades u11 4-5 Leamington Lions U11DJD

Captain: Amber

PPOM: Verity

POM: Whole team

Goals: Scarlett⚽⚽, Chloe⚽, Sara⚽, Amber⚽

On another glorious day the team took the short journey up the M40 to face The Glades for the second time this season. Last time the opposition came out on top but it was a close game and today was no different.

Due to Ava being on crutches and Lovelle being unavailable this week we were only 9 players so we played the game in 4 quarters to give the girls chance to catch their breath and my goodness they needed to as “we were straight at them” from the off and Scarlett opened the score sheet within 2mins with a quality strike.

The opposition clearly didn’t want to be a goal behind and quickly scored their equaliser on the 6th minute.

A lot of back and forth on a pitch that had an unfavourable camber, the girls were communicating well, working hard in midfield but a well struck shot by the opposition found the back of our net for the Glades to go 2-1 up.

Chloe turned on her heels and sprinted up the wing to overlap for a well-timed pass from Joss to run onto and bury in the back of the Glades net to bring us level.

Into our second quarter and a minute after the restart our opposition scored again to go 3-2 up. Not to be out done the girls raised their game again and with some great covering in defence we denied them a few attempts and then pushed up the field with each player doing their best to support the attack. The ball falling to Amber’s feet and she let fly and that was us with an equaliser and Amber with her first goal for the team.

In for half time and Donna had to do a quick double check of the score with the ref to confirm it was “honours even” at half time.

A quick team talk, reminding players to keep believing, communicating and using the wings to progress the ball up the pitch before the second half.

Second half and we were running up the hill a fair bit to stay on top of the game, but our hard work paid off as we went ahead for the first time since 5mins into the first half thanks to a Sara special from the edge of the area, perfectly struck to bounce into the back of the net.

Ariya and Eleana covering each other to close down their chances, with Ria coming across and putting in the crucial tackles when needed. Verity making several all important saves and the communication from the defence being noted by the coaches.

Back in for a quick breather before the final 15mins with the message to the girls to close down, support the defence and take the win home. However their opposition managed to get in behind our defence and level the game 4-4.

But….. the girls were not done and an enormous effort and some instruction from guest coach Andy to encourage the girls to dig deep and find that final goal to take the win and find it they did through the combined efforts of Ria and Scarlett on the right wing, a push on from Amber and bang Scarlett scores her second and our 5th with 6mins remaining.

Time to shut up shop and keep the support for our ever present defence and the girls did just that.

A well matched, thoroughly enjoyable game that every player, parent and coach can be proud of. The team that we are building here showing each other that with belief they can achieve anything. We talked about believing in ourselves at training on Weds night and had our very own Ted Lasso moment before kick off.

Thanks to The Glades for being great hosts and all round nice team to play against. Looking forward to the re-match already.