Rugby Town Team: Esme, Norah, Ellie, Olivia, Molly, Bella, Millie, Sophie
After some trepidation Rugby Town U8 Lionesses met Rugby Borough U8 girls away at Kilsby Lane.
With some very cold and windy conditions and familiar territory for some, Rugby Town went straight on the attack in the opposition half, with Rugby Borough putting up a good defence. RB hit straight back and played the ball down in our half. After setting back RT continued their heavy attack on the RB half and came up against some good defence. This put our players off a little bit and were reluctant to make tackles but with nonstop work from all players on the pitch especially midfield RT started to play some really good football, with a strong defence and brilliant clearances and fantastic goal kicks this created multiple chances for our striker and midfielders. As the game went back and forth Rugby Town strikers spent a lot of time testing RB defences. By the end of the first half, both teams were on an even keel.
Coming back on in the 2nd half the decision was made to increase to 6-a-side to give the girls more game time. With a change of goalkeeper, we had some fresh legs on the pitch. RT went to 2 strong defenders, 2 keen midfielders and a daring striker to cause the RB defence and goalkeeper even more trouble. After some successful attacks and some successful defending this really lifted the girl’s spirits and they got their fight back. With a change around of players on the pitch the girls had to settle back down again. With some fantastic dribbling from all of the girls more and more chances were being created.
As we came into the final 10 minutes the girls really settled down and started to play some brilliant football again by putting in all of the dribbling passing and shooting into practice RT started to cause some big trouble for RB. After a few scrabbles in the RB box RT became more confident. As we reached the final 5 minutes the girls began to tire but never gave in until the final whistle. All in all, the RT girls played their socks off battling until the end. It was great to see all of the girls with massive smiles on their faces throughout even when they were struggling.
Parents player: Bella for giving everything she had and ran around in midfield until she could run no more and causing some real problems in the RB half.
Managers player: Sophie for some really good play on the pitch with some great chances and willingly having a go in goal.
Next Match: 11th October away to Thurlaston U8 Tigresses – details to follow.