Marlboro U15’s – vs – Leicester City LFC U15 ’66

25th Aug 2019 – KO: 12:30

Ref: Matty Jubes

This was only the 2nd game the girls had played together as a team with the new player additions and the 2 new girls that were missing from the previous match.

The day was a scorcher and was taking its toll on the parents on the side line so we hate to think what the girls were feeling on the pitch, they didn’t show the heat affected them though and took the game by the scruff of the neck and pressed from the off. They opened the scoring inside the 1st few minutes with a lovely pass inside from Rhianna to Mia who found the bottom corner.

From the restart the girls pressured the Marlboro players and forced the mistake and broke straight through their defensive line with some lovely footwork from Daisy as she rounded the out coming keeper and slid it across for Rhianna to slot home.

The girls seemed to have unsettled the Marlboro girls and with a high pressing game were winning the ball back whenever they tried to find space in our half.

Jasmin won the ball back on the edge of the box and slipped the ball back for Sienna to unleash a shot from about 30 yards which lobbed the keeper and trickled along the underside of the net for her 1st for the club and the teams 3rd.

Marlboro put together a nice passing move and managed to lob a ball over the old guard defensive pairing of Meg and Evie but Faith was off her line quickly to collect and quickly spread the ball out wide to Katie where she skipped past one, rounded another and headed into the box, she sent the ball over to the back post for Daisy to volley the ball into the roof of the net.

Marlboro tried their luck again with the ball over the top but Erin was up to the task on the right of defence, collected the ball, played a 1-2 with Evie and set off down the wing, she played a lovely defence splitting pass inside for Mia to collect and smash into the bottom corner for the 5th of the game.

The girls had a much needed break as the sun was beating down on them, so after 25 minutes we called a halt to the match for refreshments. A quick change around saw Meg go in goal and Faith come out and play in defence alongside Evie.

They started the 2nd half at the same pace and pressed the Marlboro defence on the edge of their box, winning the ball back and Mia unleashed a rocket into the top of the net to complete her hat-trick.

Meg gathered a loose ball over the top from the Marlboro midfield and fed it out wide to Katie who went on a little run down the wing cutting inside and firing the ball over to the opposite edge of the box where Daisy controlled and volleyed into the net for her 2nd and the teams 6th of the game.

The girls pressed on again straight from kick-off and set upon moving the ball around the back line Evie and Faith were waiting to draw the Marlboro girls onto them so they could exploit the space, Drew made some room in the middle and worked a pass out wide that Sent Rhianna off down the wing for her to cut inside and feed the ball back to the edge of the box, Jasmin moved it across to Mia who returned the ball and Jasmin slotted the ball past the keeper to add the teams 7th of the game.

Again from the restart the girls hounded the opposition and quickly won the ball back through the tough tackling of Sienna, she collected the ball and pressed on forward, she sent a pass into the space for Mia to latch on to and set off into the box, she fed a ball over to Rhianna that turned the defence inside out and then Rhianna sent it back for Mia to complete her hat trick with a no look finish that Bobby would have been proud of.

The heat was beating down on the girls and we were taking it in our stride, Drew won the ball back in midfield and worked an opening with the help of a quick pass back to Faith, then through to Sienna who found Drew, she skipped into the middle and sent Erin through to the edge of the box for Erin to unleash a shot from 30 yards that looped over the keeper and scrapped along the inside of the net to add the girls 9th of the game.

The heat was getting too much for some of the girls and the Marlboro manager ask us for a break, unfortunately some of the Marlboro girls were too tired to continue so we had to call a halt to the match having played 36 minutes in total.

Final Score 0-9