Girls U14's - Coventry United U13’s
U13 girls started their Division 1 campaign away to the Division 2 champions of last season, Coventry United in extremely warm conditions.
The girls were simply not at the races for the first 10/15 minutes, no talking, no organisation, slow to every ball and they soon fell behind when a lovely cross was swept past Freya with no pressure on the player at all.
At the first water break some harsh words were spoken and the girls started to improve slowly, getting the ball moving much better, looking to get the ball out wide as we ask them to do and generally being much more determined and physical.
Half time arrived and we were still 1-0 down. A bit more honest talking from us all about not being good enough, and also telling them if they got the next goal we would have the momentum to win the game seemed to motivate them even more.
The 2nd half they did not disappoint, with every single one of them getting stuck in and doing exactly what they are good at. We won a free kick about 20 yards out for a handball, Ila struck it beautifully, it rattled the post and bounced back hitting the keeper and going in to deservedly bring us level.
5 minutes later, another free kick, Ila stepped up again and this time bent it up and over the wall into the top corner, a simply amazing strike! We had several other half chances, their keeper making a couple of good saves, before Freya pulled off a brilliant full length save to keep us ahead.
We won a penalty 5 minutes from the end for a handball and Ila dispatched it away with ease. We still had time for a couple more chances that we couldn’t take but in the end a probably deserved result against a really good team, well organised and physical who will beat a lot of the teams this season.
It turned out to be a brilliant result to get what we hope will be a good season up and running. The girls were dripping with sweat by the end of it from all their efforts, they deserve all the praise they got for the turnaround in their performance today.
Player of the match - Ila Wingrove (simply outstanding even if you take the goals away)
Parents Player - Xanthe Cousens (good solid defensive display)
