Girls' Under 13s Football vs Fairlands

Hugh Sexey hosted Fairlands in an entertaining game of Under 13s Girls Football. Hugh Sexey started brightly with the core of year 7 girls who attend training showing real improvement in their play. Annabel and Erin were rock solid at the back and not backwards in coming forwards from their full back position. Tilly, Kitty and Tarlia were very effective in midfield and showed a confidence in possession. Eleanor lead the line alongside Bonnie and showed an understanding of how to use her pace in the wide channels. Both sides had chances at either end with Lucy looking very composed and the Fairlands goalkeeper appearing a little nervous early on. Captain Ruby capitalised on this and sent a powerful shot into the corner for the opening score. Fairlands hit back with an equaliser after a bit of defensive confusion from Hugh Sexey. The excellent Evie was a rock at the back and a number of her long searching balls into the final third could of resulted in more goals. Eventually Evie took matters into her own hands and powered forward from centre back before placing the goal past their keeper. Again Fairlands found a way back into it with two of their players starting to grow into the game. At half time the talk was about having the confidence to shoot more when in sight of goal. We also talked about applying more pressure on their creative midfield player. The second half started brightly with Abbie showing amazing skills to dribble into the box. She struck the ball beautifully, but it just sailed over. Hugh Sexey continued to press but the Fairlands keeper was a player transformed in the second half and Hugh Sexey just couldn't find a way past her. The tactic of marking Fairlands player closely seemed to work as Hugh Sexey continued to press for a goal to take them into the lead. However sometimes tactics can backfire, and this was what happened in the final 10 minutes. Sensing a challenge had been put her way the Fairlands player adapted her game and found a way to get beyond the strategy resulting in a quick hattrick to take the score to 3-2. There was more drama as Fairlands were awarded a penalty. Gabby did brilliantly to save it but Fairlands were first to react and tucked in the rebound to make it 4-2. The girls should be proud of their efforts and performance. However, If more were prepared to brave the elements and attend training with Mr Kemsley and Mr Banwell I have no doubt that games like this would finish differently.