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Venue: Butlin Road
Weather: Very, very wet.
Squad: Emma, Zoe, Selina, Grace, Sophie, Ava (c), Rosie, Charlotte, Hev, Hav, Evelyn
We welcomed a much-improved Silverstone Racers to Butlin Rd for a league fixture after a couple of weeks off; a team we’ve faced a number of times before but knew to expect a tougher encounter than usual. With Lois away for this game Rosie donned the gloves for her first game in goal for us.
The heavens opened just before kick off and the horrendous conditions affected both teams who struggled to keep control of the ball in the early parts of the game. However, it was Silverstone who started brighter with a number of excellent breaks really testing the defence who were looking uncharacteristically shaky – however Rosie didn’t need to make a serious save.
With a quarter of the match gone, Rugby started to come into the game more and carved out a few chances as shots from distance from Sophie, Ava & Evelyn all brought comfortable saves. Evelyn was linking up well with Charlotte who was surging forward with intent at every opportunity. However, it was Silverstone who carved out two gilt-edged chances, their striker firing wide when through and then forcing a great save from Rosie who turned a low shot behind with her feet.
As the half drew to an end we switched the team around a bit with Grace & Hev coming on, and Rugby finished much stronger with a number of corners. We started to suspect it wasn’t going to be our day as a great cross from Ava picked out Evelyn whose instinctive finish bounced off the crossbar. However a minute later Evelyn finally broke the deadlock on the stroke of half time, firing home into the corner after another Rugby break.
HT: Rugby Town 1 – 0 Silverstone
At half time we discussed the importance of remaining positive and trying to play football, accepting that this was a tricky match against a decent team.
The match continued in similar fashion with Rugby having the lionshare of possession and trying to spring Evelyn or Charlotte free with most attacks, but Grace was seeing a lot of the ball at left wing, putting in a number of good tackles, and linking up well with Emma. However, there was a clear lack of clear-cut chances and Silverstone were still pressing forward to get back into the game, forcing a number of corners. And it was from one of these that they drew level. A wicked delivery into the box evaded most of the Rugby defenders and a Silverstone player was there to crash the equaliser into the roof of the net.
Rugby kept being positive and Ava & Sophie were harrying the midfield, able to turn over possession effectively and look to build an attack, but despite a succession of corners Rugby weren’t able to open up a resolute defence.
Starting to fear that we might not find the breakthrough, we were helped out by a superb display of finishing from Evelyn. Grace played a ball into a dangerous area of the wing, and Evelyn hunted it down, out-muscled her defender before cutting inside to curl the ball into the top corner.
Rugby then doubled the advantage again through Evelyn who, after receiving the ball on the edge of the area, jinked inside her defender twice and fired home for a hattrick. However, she wasn’t done and 5 minutes later again rolled home into the corner after another break away for her fourth.
Rugby saw out the last quarter of the game largely comfortably, although a worrying injury to Ava brought a halt in proceedings and led to a final change to the team with Hav coming on in centre-mid. With a minute of the clock remaining, Rugby were able to spring one last attack and Charlotte was desperately unlucky to see her powerful drive crash off the post.
FT: Rugby Town 4 – 1 Silverstone
Overall Performance: The team had to dig in when the game didn’t look like it was going to go our way, but once we had squeezed in front in the second half we looked comfortable in control.
Parent’s Player(s): Evelyn. She just can’t stop scoring at the moment! Never stopped going and created a number of her own goals out of nothing.
Coaches Player(s): Charlotte. Constantly dangerous on the wing, and showing increasing confidence in her touch and shooting. Was extremely unlucky not to have grabbed her first goal at the end!
Thanks to the parents for their help clearing up and their positive support throughout in horrendous weather!
