LEAMINGTON LIONS U11RA 1 - 1 Stockton Wildcats
Captain: Emmy
Goalie: Jessie
POM: Orly
Goals: Orly '26
Another lovely day for the girls to play football on, thanks for everyone for getting down for today's early KO. Both teams stood together for a minute's silence to start with to remember Poppy Atkinson who sadly died this week after a car accident at her football training on Wednesday.
We welcomed perennial friendly local rivals Stockton today, a team we edged in our last game but who are big and strong and not to be taken lightly. This, combined with the fact the girls had a hard shift on P2 - with the soft surface hard to gain traction on and providing slow ball for the girls to contend with - meant it was time for a classic slobberknocker.
Once we kicked off the girls found themselves in a hard fought game, with both teams struggling to find a steady enough rhythm to take control. Stockton were having the better end of the play, pushing into our half and compressing the girls formation. The girls were struggling to make a collective imprint, but standing strong in central midfield Emmy continued to contest and win ball, shifting the flow of the game on a number of occasions.
After about 20 minutes of stalemate the game began to open up, firstly the opposition tested Jessie who dealt with it smartly. Only a couple of minutes later the girls finally fired up their passing game. Firstly Freya released Mia who pulled it back for Belle who sadly couldn't beat the keeper and then shortly after, Zariah won the ball, she played it neatly to Chesca who shimmied past her marker and played a pin point pass through traffic to allow Orly to run in on goal and misdirect the goalie. The opposition came straight back at us and thought they had got an equaliser with only a couple of minutes to go only to be called back for offside.
So 1-nil halftime but the girls were riding their luck. Emphasis on talking, pressing and passing discussed at halftime.
The girls started the second half brightly, pushing into the oppo half and eventually forcing a hand ball out of the oppo goalie just outside of the penalty box. Immy stepped up and struck a thumping strike that cannoned off the crossbar. The girls were still building momentum when they were caught on the counter, the midfield were over committed, our defence was momentarily caught flat footed - leaving Jessie exposed and suddenly the scores were equalised.
More slogging it out followed as the soft pitch started to drain all the girls energy but both teams managed to create opportunities as the game wound down (bit of long ball football all-round), with Jessie again stepping up with a solid save as well as some increasingly booming kicks and then Lyra unlucky not to bag the teams second as the clock began to run out.
So well done to the girls, tough game but one I think the girls will learn a few lessons from.
And a draw for our first cup group stage game. 3 more games over the coming weeks and we will see where the maths is at the end of it.
Captains Nominations:
Well done to Emmy, hard running, hard tackling, good passing and some impressive leadership on and off the pitch
Defence
Some great work from our defensive players today, Z, Freya and Immy doing well under pressure, but Orly's work at the back calmed the girls down and gave them a great platform to try and push for a win from.
Midfield
Some hard yards put in by our midfield players. Great leadership from Immy throughout the middle. And unlucky not to bag a stunning free kick.
Attack
Great work from Lyra and Rosie leading the line but very creative work from Chesca, at the centre of a number of passing moves and key in setting up Orly for the team's only goal of the day.
Emmy was firmly split on who to pick , but as the last nominee standing Orly was happy to collect, and well deserved, goal scoring at one end, goal saving at the other.
We also got a lovely pic of both teams together for International Women's Day thanks to Dave for photography, Mo and Si for lino work and Si and Thea for keeping things calm in the car park.
Go 🦁
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