Coalville Town 1-1 Rugby Town
Sunday 17th September
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“Spoils Shared”
Rugby Town travelled to Coalville who had already secured 4 points after a win and draw from their opening two games of the season. Rugby were on the end of a 3-0 loss in the corresponding fixture 12 months ago and it was always going to be a close encounter this time around.
In the absence of Fifi, Hollie and Soapy, the girls were asked to adopt a 3-5-2 in the hope we could dominate central areas of the pitch and use our passing game to play through our opponents.
Rugby started brightly and took the game to Coalville, exerted plenty of pressure early on without really creating a clear goal scoring chance as we attacked down a small slope and with a light wind. Despite this, on 10 minutes and against the run of play Coalville took the lead when a inconspicuous back pass by Ria bobbled right over Ruby’s foot as she attempted to control it.
Far from letting their heads drop, the girls rallied and looked to out right the wrong. Bailey shot straight at the keeper when through 1v1, Grace blazed over from a cut back and Elizabeth had more time than she realised when rushing a shot from 10 yards. Ellie, Chloe and Grace had control of the midfield and Cara and Jess were causing havoc down the wings. Coalville were pinned back and rarely threatening as Rugby pushed for the equaliser. Sofia did very well to wriggle through before seemingly being sythed down in the area, the referee was quick to quash the penalty appeals.
On 40 minutes and with the half time approaching Rugby got a corner after good work down the right by Pauline, Chloe played in to Cara who passed back to Chloe…she delivered a second cross with plenty of pace on and Bailey reacted first to get across the defender and steer a first time shot through the keepers legs to the delight of her teammates and the hoards of travelling fans!.
HT 1-1
At half time we talked about a few minor tweaks to help cope with the pitch and wind, and we put Cara up top to utilise her electrifying pace through the middle as we looked to turn the opposition around. Coalvilles star player was their goalkeeper who demonstrated excellent positioning to snuff out a number of attacks. It was still Rugby who were playing most of the football and doing most of the attacking, but credit to both teams for what was a solid defensive display as clear cut chances were very few and far between. Rugby were a split second, inches and often one decison away from creating the all important moment in the game, and it was an outstanding display from Ruby, Ria, Jazmin and Macy at the back to limit Coalville to just a two real chances in the whole game.
As the game approached the latter stages it became stretched again as fitness and the big pitch began to come into play. We rotated the girls more and they went toe to toe in the final exchanges as both teams looked for a winner before the ref blew and the spoils were shared.
FT 1-1
Goal: Bailey ⚽Coaches Player: RiaPlayers Player: Jess 🏆Parents Player: Jess 🏆
Well done to all the girls for a fantastic effort this afternoon. Aside from a very unfortunate lack of luck they probably deserved to win, but the performance is always more important than the result and I was very pleased with what I saw.
We shall continue to work on passing and ball retention so that when we feel we are losing control of the game we can dictate the tempo and possession. I’ll be working with the attacking players on Tuesday so that we can look at how we turn a 25 yard shot into a better chance closer to the goal and we’ll continue the good work done in defence on playing out when we can.
We should be able to confirm tomorrow if our first Friday session to starts this week and then we role into our first home game against Oadby who have started with 3 wins…I am confident if we work hard this week and continue to apply ourselves we can give them a very good game and make in further progress towards our target of a top 4 finish this season.
Thanks to Pierrick and James for running the line and coaching and to all the parents for your vociferous support!
All the best,
The Coaches. 💙⚽👊🏽