Sunday 10th December
Rugby Town 6-0 Coalville Town
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“IN THE war’ZONE’
After a slow start for 5 or 10 minutes Rugby soon found their groove and got into the zone, as they played some lovely flowing football in front of the senior team management who were looking on from the hill. The girls have certainly started to get their attention with this run of form and some fantastic performances.
Although we were perhaps not as quick out the blocks as we’d have wanted, we still had the majority of possession and territory, and Coalville were not really threatening due to the good shape and willingness of each player to help out their team mates. Whether it was backing them up in a tackle, filling in when they went forward, or recovering to prevent an overload, the desire to stop the opposition from scoring was evident all over the pitch.
Ellie was working incredibly hard both in defence and high up the pitch in midfield, she was giving their left back a torrid time and was responsible for winning a number of turnovers. Despite the good work rate, Rugby were limited to half chances and shots from distance…then with a rare attack of their own Coalville got themselves a penalty after 30 minutes.
Fifi made herself as big as possible and moved around on the goaline to put the striker off…as she hit Fifi guessed correctly to her left and parried the ball away, it fell fortuitously for the taker but she could only stab the ball wide under pressure from an on rushing Fifi. Her team mates recognised the importance of the save at this stage of the game, to go 0-1 down can be difficult so to keep the scores level meant the save was huge. A few minutes of panic ensued but Rugby quickly settled down again, and probably at this crucial juncture began to play the type of football we’ve now come to expect.
Rushed and over hit passes became calm and accurate, loose through balls became pinpoint, and our dribbling, decision making and timing all clicked into gear. This led to Addy netting after a perfectly weighted through ball from Soapy, Addy used her power and skill to beat the defender before seeing her shot saved, however she was alert to the rebound and put into the now empty net.
Bailey and Hollie were linking up well down the right and Grace found Bailey with a defence splitting pass. The pullback was intercepted just as Sofia was ready to pull the trigger.
Moments later and Addy got her second, good work down the right saw her slip past the defence, cutting in on her left foot she reversed her shot into the near post.
With Fifi, Ruby, Jaz Jess and Hollie in defence Coalville were left frustrated from the lack of change they were getting out of a well organised sub team.
Rugby were now pretty much camped in the Coalville half, Addy, Sofia, Ellie and Soapy all had shots on target before Jaz sent a brilliant header agonisingly wide of the post.
HT 2-0
At half time the advice was simple, keep up the hard work and aggressive pressure high up the pitch, and then have the composure to find a teammate with a good pass. There were a few technical and tactical tweaks and guidance given to individuals, especially those coming on; Ria, Macy, Chloe, Cara & Pauline replaced Hollie, Jaz, Bailey, Sofia & Addy.
The girls kicked off and immediately set the tone for the rest of the half, Chloe played back to Soapy, who deceived her opponent and slid the ball to Grace, Grace played a lovely ball back to Soapy who passed forward to Ellie and we’d moved the ball straight through the opposition in style. A corner was the result and already we were into creating chances.
Plenty of player management was needed as the game went on, injuries, the immense work put in and the cold meant that players needed to be rotated. Ordinarily this would lessen the cohesion and understanding between players but due to the tightness of the group, their friendship on and off the pitch, and their hard work in training to better understand not only their roles but that of others, the changes did not have any negative effect. In fact, the freshness legs simply meant that Rugby were even more dominant, as the opposition tired we were able to turn the screw and make more of our chances.
Ria made an excellent run down the right and Ellie put in a great cross, only for the goalkeeper to get there before Cara. Cara then went round the keeper but couldn’t quite sneak the ball in from a narrow angle. Sofia had a brilliant shot saved and Jess who had moved into midfield was unlucky after a fantastic dribble and shot.
Chloe scored the pick of the goals, after a nice one/two she had the presence of mind to look up and spotted the keeper off her line, she then had the quality to expertly lob the ball over her from 35+ yards.
Addy got her hat-trick with sheer determination to get onto another through pass saw her cooly round the keeper and slot home, and a deserved 4th with another well taken finish from just inside the area. Cara then added to her season tally when she beat the defender 1v1 on the edge of the box, slipped past the keeper who tried desperately to stop her, before this time finishing from an even more difficult angle than the one she’d unfortunately missed earlier in the game, a very tidy finish indeed.
I don’t recall Fifi making more than a routine stop in the second half, and she did well on several occasions to be an option to play back to when we were under pressure, her distribution was again superb and it is all part of another impressive team performance.
FT Rugby Town 6-0 Coalville Town
What I love about this team right now is how the end result is never down to just one individual, we are the definition of a team being the sum total of it’s individual parts all working collaboratively, and it’s a joy to behold. It is then, yet again so hard to pick players of the match…Fifi saved a penalty and has a 3rd consecutive clean sheet (who’d have thought that a few months ago?), Addy has scored 4 goals, ALL the girls played so brilliantly…but we have the following decisions from today’s game;
Coaches PotM: Ellie 🏆
Parents PotM: Ellie 🏆
Players PotM: Ellie 🏆
A display that had everything except a goal! Well done Ellie, it was clearly noted by your peers, coaches and parents 👏🏽.
All the best, the Coaches ⚽💙