18th September 2022, KO 10:00
Team – Emilia, Emy-Mae, Esme, Phoebe, Sienna W, Sienna M
Sponsor – Lightning Tools
The weather was overcast with a cold chill in the air to greet the players, coach and supporting parents as we faced for the first time Ashby Ivanhoe away from home to start our season. Playing in a new pre-planned formation and wearing pink training bibs Steve organised the team looking at the players moving away from last season’s traditional diamond formation to a new style of play. The game started at pace with Rugby Town enjoying large periods of possession during the first 10 minutes but with Ashby having the greater attacking threat towards the Rugby Town goal, maybe as a result of the slight slope and wind direction. During this period the team defended well with Phoebe making some good interventions and saves to prevent Ashby’s success. Sienna W, Emilia and Emy-Mae worked exceedingly hard in defence and midfield to make some critical last-minute 1:1 challenges whilst clearing the lines several times to bring the ball out of defence and into the Ashby half. Esme then replaced Emy-Mae to bring on fresh legs, with Esme moving into an attacking position where she showed a good work rate and excellent teamwork. This quickly followed a nice move by Rugby with a through ball from midfield by Sienna M to Esme whilst splitting the defence but unfortunately without success during this attacking move. Then against possession Rugby lost concentration for a second and Ashby achieved through positive play an advantage.
The second half started with Esme in goal and Phoebe now playing in the outfield, with Steve rotating the players frequently to give them short quick breaks as it was their first league match of the season. The team carried on with its excellent first-half possession whilst also creating numerous chances with good passing between all players. This relentless pressure eventually led to a run towards goal by Sienna M.
Then in the last 10 mins the team built on its ever-growing confidence with strong goalkeeping and defending by Esme and Phoebe and energised deep midfield running by Emy-Mae, Emilia and Sienna W. Ending with every player deciding to have a go at goal in a frantic minute with the ball bouncing, hitting the post, defenders, and the goalkeeper, only for Sienna M to find space and calmly slot the ball home past the keeper, lending to a celebration. Emilia added to this in a strong second-half performance with a stream of end-to-end runs ending with a powerful and controlled strike at goal. Ashby then decided to have a go back and with each attempt, Esme showed time after time how well she is developing as a player/goalkeeper with nice low saves and even had the confidence to dribble the ball around and away past the Ashby striker in front of goal! This then inspired a final Rugby Town attack and Sienna M again managed to out-foot the Ashby defence to move up the pitch.
The team grew and grew in confidence and strength throughout the match and at no point did any heads drop to ensure they contributed to the game. Ashby Ivanhoe were a competitive opposition and many thanks to them for being a welcoming host. It was a great and highly entertaining start to the season, whilst showing a real team spirit and work ethic. Well done U9s!
Players/Managers: Sienna M
Parents Player: Emilia