Rugby Town U12’s Vs Hinckley United U12’s

Sponsored by Big Wave Campers, Kelsey Living, Oxygen Graphics, Eclipse Clean, Ados Group Ltd and Life Investments Estate Agents

Immie – GK

Annabelle – DF

Elsie – DF

Olivia – DF

Ruby – CM

Sophia – RM

Emily – LM

Ava – CM

Chloe – ST

Subs – Leila, Erin, Esme

This weeks match took the Under 12’s over the border into Leicestershire and our new local rivals at Hinckley which is known as the home of Triumph Motorcycles. Triumph is synonymous with their success at the Bonneville salt flats in Utah, which is known for having one of the most even and flat surfaces on the Earth and so quite similar in lots of ways to the pitch for todays match. Sort of. There was a strong smell of grass in the air which seemed to make for a sluggish start to the match, with the size of the pitch being so vast in comparison with the warm-up area provided.

The Speed Triple of Elsie, Annabelle and Olivia in defence were being called into early action. Hinckley were encouraged to get to The Edge of The Box on several occasions and this pressure from the Hinckley midfield made it hard for the Rugby girls to get going. The play was evenly matched until a huge Bobber hit a Rugby midfielder on the hand at the Edge of the Box and a penalty was awarded. Immie made a fantastic dive but couldn’t quite reach the ball to prevent the score being 1:0.

The midfield needed more of a Scrambler approach with Ava, Emily and Ruby needing to get stuck in and battle for the ball, with Sophia becoming frustrated with the physical attention that was coming her way. Chloe was showing good movement out on the wings in order to gain possession and Erin demonstrating her usual tenacity.

Leila and Esme came on to try and provide some extra energy and Rugby were able to start making some more forward runs with Immie showing her excellent kicking skills from goal. A superb corner routine from Ruby had Annabelle making a late run from the Edge of the Box with a tremendous shot that was cleared off the line. A quick clearance took another Bobber off the pitch that evaded the defenders and the Hinckley forwards were able to capitalise and make the score 2:0.

The manager said a few things at half-time that clearly gave some Thruxton to the girls and they came out for the 2nd half with much more energy.

The Speed Twin partnership of Leila and Chloe was starting to work better, and some great passing between them started to create space to run into. Chloe broke free and a cynical shirt pull led to a free kick, with Ruby testing the goalkeeper with a superb long range effort.

At the other end of the pitch, Elsie and Olivia showed great strength in clearing the Hinckley attacks with Esme becoming more assured in the centre of defence as the match wore on. Emily made some important interceptions and Erin was able to pressure the goalkeeper into giving away an unfortunate corner.

In a moment of genuine quality, Ruby hit an absolute Rocket and scored direct from the corner and made the score 2:1. This gave the girls more confidence to take the game to Hinckley and allow their quality to show, with one of the Mum’s showing her superb touch when controlling the ball after it had gone out for a throw in.