Sunday 5th March 2023
Sponsor: FORD Bros building & Electrical,
Trade Centre UK,
Life Investment estate agency
Squad:
Agga, Alice, Amelia, El, Elisa, Jess, Lola, Macy, Maddie, Matilda, Poppy, Ruby, Ruby Tanisha
Rugby Town u13s Lionesses travelled to Barrow, for the return fixture having beat Barrow in the home fixture earlier in the season.
Tanisha continued in goal, and again had a good game behind a back three of Ruby.D, Alice and Maddie. With several players missing, the defenders were unable to rotate, and had to work hard for the full game. The Rugby defence has been a real tough nut to crack this season, and yet again today, Rugby did not concede from open play.
The Rugby midfield of Poppy, Matilda, Macy and El began in the usual midfield diamond behind Aga as the striker.
However during the game we continued our squad rotation with Jess, Amelia, Lola and Elisa all coming in. This ability to be able to rotate has contributed well to the team performances this season, allowing us to keep up the pressure on team. Today was no exception, making Barrow work hard to deny us opportunities.
A new addition to the playing squad saw Ruby.H make her debut for Rugby. She has trained with the squad for quite a while, and it was great to see her finally get her chance to play. She slotted in really well, which was never in doubt based on her efforts since joining us.
Barrow who started the day third in the league, played with a lot of determination and Rugby were struggling to settle into their usual passing play.
Barrow were clearly needing to work hard to contain Rugby, but were doing it effectively.
Rugby had the first good opportunity when a lovely corner taken by Matilda was lifted nicely into the box. Aga got herself into a nice scoring position and got her head on the end of the corner, but the ball went over the crossbar. She can count herself as very unlucky not to have scored.
As the half went on, it was looking like it may be a 0-0 at half time. However Jess having rotated on to the pitch, made a great run. She slotted home into the very bottom corner with a great finish.
Rugby went into the half one nil.
The second half started with a slightly different formation. With the usual wide players drawn in to put 3 supporting midfielders behind the striker…this was to deal with Barrows work rate which had prevented Rugby playing the wide football they like to play.
Both teams were keeping up their efforts, when a penalty to Barrow was awarded for a handball in the box. The Barrow penalty taker took a great shot, which was going to dip just under the cross bar, however Tanisha pulled off a great save to tip it over the bar. However the drama was not over, as the ref ordered the penalty to be taken again, as it was judged the Rugby keeper had moved off her line. This time the penalty was successful and Barrow were now on level terms.
1-1
Rugby confident with their great form in the league were not phased and kept up their usual play.
As the second half developed it was clear Barrow were struggling to keep up the effort to contain Rugby who had periods of good possession in the Barrow half, and were getting into some lovely linked up passing which they have developed this season.
This control of the game was rewarded when a lovely move by Aga, past the Barrow defence resulted in Rugby’s second goal.
A major strength of Rugby this season, has not only been the flexibility of many of the girls to play more than one position, but the strength in depth of the squad. We have been able to regularly rotate during games, without any detrimental effect on the performance of the play. This is a luxury many other teams we’ve faced this season just don’t have.
The girls have shown great maturity and understanding in this respect.
It’s great to be able to finish a game knowing every one of the girls contributed to the 3 points.
With the game drawing to an end, it was decided to make some tactical changes with attackers being withdrawn and more midfielders brought on. This simply to ensure Rugby controlled the game until the final whistle.
Whilst not the best performance of the season, it was good to see that the squad can rotate and adapt their tactics to grind out the win when needed.
Final score 1-2
Player of the game. Aga for a strong performance up front and attacking midfield. For a great goal, and a great headed effort.
Managers player: Maddie for a strong performance in defence again, with some lovely clearances.
Thank you to Pete for assisting and running the line, and thanks to the parents for their fantastic support of the girls.