Squad: Norah, Millie, Esme, Molly, Bella, Ellie, Sophie
Today saw our U8 lionesses host Thurlaston lionesses. It was a great morning for football as the rain held off and the sun came for us. Today was also the U8s first home game and first time playing 2 halves of 20 minutes instead of 4 lots of 10 minutes. We knew this was going to be a test for the girls and they seemed very apprehensive about this but pushed their nerves away and went out on the pitch determined and ready to get the match going.
Rugby began the first half very strong with Millie, Ellie and Sophie working hard together up the pitch to put a lot of pressure on Thurlaston’s defence and goalkeeper. Rugby began to tire very quickly due to multiple layers, this allowed for plenty of substitutes. Both teams were evenly matched for most of the first half, after some great work from Molly and her fantastic clearances Thurlaston had a successful break through.
This did not put Rugby down and with some fresh legs on the pitch we were ready to carry on pressing which worked in our favour, this really gave the girls the willpower to keep battling. After some more brilliant work from our defence and midfield, putting into practice their hard work on Friday, Thurlaston successfully broke through once again, Rugby began to tire more and more calling for more swaps. Again, Thurlaston broke down our strong but tired defence to become successful once more, by this point Rugby were looking a little deflated but a positive attitude from Millie helped the girls carry on until half time.
After their half time oranges, the girls were excited to get back on the pitch. With a change of goalkeeper, we had another pair of fresh legs to give Thurlaston a challenge. Rugby re started even stronger than the first half not afraid to make tackles or dribble with the ball. With some great clearances from Norah this created plenty of chances for Ellie, Millie, and Molly which to the girls’ delight paid off. The girls then knew that they had something to fight for. Rugby also had plenty of chances to practice their throw ins and corners, the girls were really focusing on marking a player then it was the opposing teams throw in or corner which was great to see.
The heat and the length of the half had really got to the girls at this point leading a few rewarding breakthroughs for Thurlaston. With some encouragement from parents this helped the girls continue until the very end. In the last 30 seconds Rugby had a corner, with a great delivery and a fumble from the keeper this meant rugby ended the game on a high. All in all, another fantastic performance from all today.
Parents’ Player – this was a hard one to choose this week as everyone played extremely well, Norah was awarded parents’ player this week for being a very key player at both ends of the pitch and not letting her head drop when she easily could’ve.
Managers player – this was also extremely tough to pick; Ellie was awarded managers player this week for playing in almost every position, listening to my advice perfectly and did everything I could ask for. Ellie also didn’t stop running all game.
