The girls third game of the season was against Desford, familiar opponents in recent seasons.
The early exchanges were fairly even and it was good to see Rugby start off strongly with concentration levels high right from the start. Half way through the first half Rugby took a deserved lead through Lauren. Five minutes later Rugby doubled their lead following a good finish by Chloe. Although two goals behind Desford were not giving up and continued to create chances of their own. Due to a combination of good goalkeeping and wasteful finishing from Desford, Rugby stayed ahead. Even better was to come as Rugby scored a third goal through Hollie ten minutes before half time. This was Rugby’s best half of the season so far, with the girls putting into practice the things they had learnt in training. As the half came to a close confidence and communication levels were high.
Half Time
Rugby Town 3 Desford 0
Rugby started the second half brightly and within three minutes of the restart scored a fourth goal through Hollie. Desford had no substitutes and were now visibly tiring, the game appeared to be there for the taking for Rugby. Desford kept going and five minutes later pulled a goal back to make the score 4-1. Eight minutes later Desford pulled back another goal to make it 4-2, both goals coming from corners. Five minutes later Desford scored a third goal, and then a fourth five minutes later. Four goals in eighteen minutes from Desford made the score 4-4. By this time Desford’s confidence began to grow and they continued to put the Rugby defence under a lot of pressure. Five minutes later Desford took the lead and all the hard work from the first half was undone. At this point the girls were a bit shell shocked and two further Desford goals in four minutes made the score 7-4. Quite unbelievably Desford had scored seven goals in twenty seven second half minutes. At this point Rugby regrouped, showed good fighting spirit and were rewarded when Lauren scored to make it 7-5 on the stroke of full time. Rugby were not finished yet and Hollie completed her hat trick to make it 7-6 in added time with a superb strike from distance. With Rugby on the attack in search of an equaliser the referee blew the whistle for full time.
Full Time
Rugby Town 6 Desford 7
For the second week running defeat was hard to take, but there were positives to take from the game.
Players of the Match
Hollie – Scored three goals and was a constant threat to the Desford defence.
Rebecca – Made some great saves, and some very brave block