Sunday 23rd April
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Immie – GK
Olivia – DF
Elsie – DF
Annabelle – DF
Ava – CM
Emily – LM
Ruby – CM
Chloe – RM
Sophia – ST
Subs – Ava, Liv
The final league match for the Under 12’s took the girls away to the very pretty Anstey Nomads ground; such a lovely ground that some people arrived 30 minutes early just to take in the scenery… There was also a certain amount of ‘bench-envy’ with Anstey having a canopy on theirs…!
The recent weather made for heavy conditions and the grass made for a slow start for Rugby, with Anstey creating the early chances. The defensive trio of Olivia, Elsie and Annabelle made several strong runs tackles and the beginning of some individual duels with the Anstey forwards.
The Rugby management team made some early substitutions and this seemed to put some spark into the girls and their play started to come together. Ruby made her presence felt in midfield and Erin and Emily began to make some great challenges and create chances for Chloe, and Sophia made the first of several barnstorming runs were the defence just couldn’t handle her strength and pace.
Moving into the centre of defence brought the best out of Annabelle with her strong tackling and clearances, and Olivia and Elsie were able to show their great positional play. Immie made the first of some spectacular saves until a long clearance from the goalkeeper was allowed to bounce and the striker finished into the corner of the net.
The response from the girls was to take the game to Anstey and go on the attack. Liv used her strength to boss the forward line and Ava and Emily made incredible runs at the defenders to create chances for Erin and Sophia. Ruby played a superb pass to Elsie and a terrific pass created a chance for Liv who shot just wide.
Annabelle was continuing to organise the defence with committed headed clearances and crisp passes to the midfielders, and on the next attack was able to make the last gasp tackle that frustrated the Anstey forwards. A snap shot was superbly saved low down by Immie and tipped around the post, a save so good she was given a goal kick from it.
The 2nd half kicked off with an amazing run by Ava, fast and direct at goal and she was only denied by another great save from the Anstey goalkeeper. This created the pattern for the second half, with Ruby, Erin and Emily really getting stuck into the midfield with great tackling and passing and taking the game to the opposition. Liv possesses an incredible long throw and this created panic in the Anstey defence and a quick clearance from Olivia found Ava, who went pass her defender to the byline and she provided a cutback pass to Chloe. From an acute angle, Chloe did what she does best and a terrific finish produced the equaliser to make the score 1:1.
Long ball clearances from the Anstey goalkeeper continued to frustrate the girls with the uneven bounce, and a long shot took a massive deflection that evaded Immie and Anstey went ahead very much against the run of play to make the score 1:2.
This really fired up the girls and attacking runs from Erin and Emily created chances for Chloe, Ruby and Sophia. Great defending by Elsie and Olivia restricted Anstey to long shots, and Immie produced another incredible save to stop the ball finding the the top corner of the net. The final action of the match was the awarding of an indirect free kick at the end and as it was skied over the bar the game ended in what felt like a harsh defeat.
Coaches Player of the Match – Annabelle
Parents Player of the Match – Emily
Thank you as always to the referee and officials for their commitment and the parents for their support.