Girls U12's Lionesses - Leam Lions DW U12's

U12 Lionesses -We were playing our rearranged 1/4 final open cup game at local rivals Leam Lions DW.

Perfect conditions for football with a soft pitch, blue skies and the sun shining.

We enjoy good games against Leam Lions who like us started out as U8’s, so we’d have played each other a lot over the years.

Pre match we took part in a photo of both sets of players together, to celebrate International women’s day, we also took part in a minutes silence to show our respect for Poppy Atkinson.

The game started at a good pace with lots of end to end attacks without either team really creating many clear cut opportunities.

Mayana was showing great defensive abilities halting attacks down the right, Gracie was doing well on the right with some great interceptions and as instructed supporting Mona in attacks down the right when possible.

Lacey was commanding in defence and reading the game superbly and taking on board our pre match tactics really well ensuring we were making the opponents play in their half when possible.

Peyton was doing a great job in the centre of midfield, breaking up attacks and driving forward when possible, with Mimi and Mona pushing hard down the wings. Layla and Elysia started up top and were busy without having many chances to get a shot off. Elysia did manage to create her own chance with some neat foot work on the edge of the box allowing her to hit a curling right foot effort.

We welcomed back Emma to the squad after a 6 week injury may off, and her and Erin came on midway through the first half. These two kept up the hard work that had been done at the start of the game, and we were rewarded with a goal from Emma to take the lead. A right foot effort into the bottom corner was a joy to see.

Second half was much the same as the first with Leam Lions pushing and putting us under a bit of pressure. Bella didn’t really have a big save to make and the team battled hard through to the final whistle for the win.

Next stop semi finals at home vs Cov City Red.

Thanks as always to the support from the sidelines.

POM - Gracie - excellent all game and listened really well to her role for the game

PPOM - Emma - great to see her back and got the winner

Massive shout out to all the girls who played ! Lots of hard running and effort once again 👏 Massive team performance !!

Credit to all the girls playing to Leam Lions for once again being part of a great advert for Girls football ! Especially on International Women's Day.