Barton United Ladies FC v Headington Ladies FC, Thames Valley Counties Women’s Football League Division 1, Sunday 5th October 2014, Kick Off 2pm Team: Lou (gk), Jess, Nicöla, Clare, Bronagh, Nimmo, Kate, Anna, Newps (c), Melinda, Jazz, Lara, Hillier and Kendall. Score: 4 – 4 (Melinda, Kate, Jazz & Newps) Today we were back on the road as we travelled the many miles away to Barton. Despite it raining yesterday the pitch was hard as a rock and bone dry. We lost the toss and would kick off playing into the sun. We kicked off and immediately gave the ball away and put ourselves under pressure, we were all over the place as Barton breezed right through us. We survived momentarily but it was literally momentarily. Trying to defend against two attackers and with no support Bronagh was overwhelmed leaving a winger free to swing in a cross, the cross was mishit and flew straight over Lou and into the back of the net. We were only two minutes in and hadn’t got out of our own half, we kicked off again, immediately we gave the ball away and were under the cosh. We were a shambles, we continually gave the ball away, didn’t track our players and allowed Barton to dictate play. We survived for a few minutes before we conceded again. We allowed an attack to get though the defence, a shot was fired in which Lou parried, there was a scramble in the box before a Barton player fired the ball into the back of the net. We were rocking, 2 – 0 down after only eight minutes and the way we were playing were looking at being on the end of a right mauling. We kicked off again and were put under pressure straight away, only this time we began to start playing. We rode out the next ten minutes and started to grow in confidence and belief. We were beginning to look menacing going forward forcing several corners which were well defended. The game had opened up with both teams playing attacking football. We created several chances before we grabbed our first goal. A great clearance from Bronagh found Newps who crossed the ball across the 18 yard line where Melinda beat the on rushing keeper to steer the ball into the back of the net….and getting clobbered by the goalie in the process! Fantastic brave finish! The confidence was flowing and we knew we could get ourselves back into this. We were outclassing Barton and they knew it as they began to get frustrated and kick out at anyone and everyone. The free kicks being awarded to us were adding up. We were awarded a free kick for one of the many fouls in midfield, Nic played the ball straight into the path of Kate who had sprinted clear of the Barton defence, Kate showed fantastic presence of mind to lob the keeper to even up the score, great finish and just what we needed!! We were playing some really good football and should’ve had another goal when Jazz was clean through and beat the keeper only for their linesman to step in and rescue his team by ruling it out for offside. We were looking the more likely to increase our lead, we won several free kicks in the middle of the park and tried to recreate our second goal but to no avail. The referee was running out of breath as he continually blew his whistle to award us free kicks! The game was really end to end stuff, we defended resolutely and despite conceding two goals early on didn’t allow Barton to get past the defence for the remainder of the half. Out of the two teams we were creating the more clear cut chances including a super long range effort from Melinda which went just wide of the far post. The half ended at 2 – 2, we were very disappointed with the way we started but the way we got back into the match and dictated play showed great character. Marc had some very stern words for us at half time and we knew that we hadn’t done ourselves justice with the way we had played. The second half saw us attack the goal away from the clubhouse with the sun behind us. Straight from the kick off we continued to play at the same tempo as at the end of the first half. We brought Lara on for Jess and switched Anna to right back. Right from the off we were on the offensive and were tearing Barton apart, they resorted to trying to bully us with late challenges and niggly fouls. A shameful challenge on Lara brought the game’s first yellow, the Barton player had no intention of winning the ball she just went for Lara and took her out completely from behind. We stepped up a gear and just ripped Barton to pieces. We were dominating play and finally we got the reward we deserved, a great ball through to the right wing found Jazz who beat the Barton left back and curled a shot around the keeper into the bottom corner, great finish!! We were in complete control as Barton imploded, minutes later we were four – two up as Newps raced clear of the Barton defence to knock the ball past their keeper. Fantastic!!! We were thoroughly enjoying this and were playing straight through Barton. We pressed forward time and again and scored a fifth goal from a corner. The ball was whipped in to Clare whose initial shot was blocked but she showed great presence of mind to grab the rebound and knock the ball into the net. Melinda had chased after the ball to ensure it went in, it had already crossed the line before their linesman flagged for offside against Melinda. Melinda hadn’t touched the ball until after it crossed the line and as there were no Barton players nearby we couldn’t understand the decision. Undeterred by this we continued to press forward and each time the same outcome, we breached the Barton defence only for the flag to immediately shoot up to prevent our advance. Questions were asked of these decisions, one of them was just ridiculous as the run had started in our own half! Sadly a challenge from behind on Kate brought the game’s second yellow with a deliberate kick to Kate’s Achilles. Kate limped off to be replaced by Hillier. The challenges were out of control, this resulted in the game becoming very stop start as the referee was constantly awarding free kicks. Despite these tactics we wanted to play football and continued to attack at will. After around 70 minutes we were awarded a spot kick for an obvious and deliberate push in the back on Melinda. Sadly for us their keeper saved the spot kick and we couldn’t react quickly enough to knock in the rebound. Lara received a yellow for getting in the way, it seemed very harsh considering the fouls that had not been punished with a booking. Tempers had definitely frayed and yet another booking followed for one of the Barton substitutes who just couldn’t keep her opinion to herself! We didn’t want to get involved in this side of the game, we just wanted to play football. We were looking to add to our tally and continued to attack at every opportunity, we were just a little too eager at times to get forward which left large holes which Barton were trying to exploit. We conceded a corner on about 80 minutes and allowed a Barton player to get a free header 6 yards out which dribbled over the line dead centre of our goal, this was just sloppy play, we just took our eye off the ball and allowed them back in with a soft goal. We just needed to dig in and see out the last ten minutes but instead we went looking for more goals which proved to be our downfall. We lost possession during an attack and within seconds our defence was outnumbered, the ball was played through unchallenged allowing a Barton player to grab their equalizer. We were gutted by this, we should’ve been over the hills and far away but instead were pegged back to 4 – 4 with only a few minutes left on the clock. We drove forward searching for the winner but couldn’t get onto the score sheet. The game ended 4 – 4, we were very disappointed with our first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes but for the rest of the game we were dominant and in a different class and for that we should be proud of ourselves. We played ourselves out of trouble on multiple occasions with some great triangles and team work. We scored six goals and could’ve got so many more, we came from 2 – 0 down to turn the game completely around at 4 – 2…great character and a will to win we just need to learn to put games to bed!! Player of the match….Jazz!!!!!!!!
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 00:51:56 +0000
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