An absorbing game of football which ebbed to and fro from the kick off. With Jenna nursing a training injury, Katie took over in goal and she was the busier of the two keepers in the first fifteen minutes pulling off some great saves to keep the game to a respectable score.
The defensive partnership of Marley and Rosie were finding it hard to pick up the forward runs of the Leicester girls and on a number of occasions they had Katie to thank for stopping chances being turned into goals. However she could do little when their No.9 got away from the defenders and hit a shot into the top corner.
With Madi also out injured, the midfield trio of Jasmine, Lila and Holly had to work extra hard to contain the Leicester attacks. Despite this, they did carve out chances and Melissa in particular was causing the Leicester defence all sorts of problems when she had the ball at her feet.
Rosie played a superb cross field pass directly into Jasmine’s feet who then became provider when she crossed for Melissa to gather and shoot home. The Leicester girls were now looking a little subdued and Rugby began to dominate play towards half time which resulted in the Jasmine, Melissa partnership opening up the Leicester defence again for the chance to be taken sweetly.
The second half saw Rosie take over the keeper’s role and Katie replacing Rosie in defence. Leicester started with the upper hand and Rosie was called on to make a superb stop in the first five minutes. Rugby were still making chances to help increase their score and a handball by one of the Leicester defenders presented a penalty but unfortunately it was hit straight at the keeper and the chance was lost.
The play was again end to end with Rugby quite often being caught on the break from their own corners as the Leicester defence cleared their lines. With no substitutes available the girls were having to dig in deep for more effort and determination to counter the Leicester attacks. However, a bizarre goal for Rugby arrived via a throw in that bounced in the box and a Leicester defender looped the ball over their keeper to give Rugby some breathing space.
Despite this setback Leicester’s heads did not go down and they started to create more and more chances culminating in two excellent stops from Rosie to retain the status quo. Leicester were enjoying lots of possession and winning lots of corners as the game approached full time. From one of these the ball bounced around the penalty area before unfortunately hitting one of our own players and ending up in the net. This brought a grandstand finish from Leicester as they tried to save the game which included their goalkeeper going up for what was to be the final corner of the match before the final whistle was blown on a really good game.
Supporters Player: Katie – Coaches Player: Rosie