Headington Ladies V Banbury United Ladies, Oxfordshire Football Association Women’s County Cup, Quarter Final, Sunday 16th November 2014, Harcourt Hill, Kick Off 1:30pm Team: Lou (gk), Hazel, Nicöla, Clare, Jess, Anna, Nimmo, Bronagh, Lara, Newport (c), Hillier, Kendall and Melinda. Score 0 – 2 Today we were back in action in the County Cup at Harcourt against Banbury United Ladies who play a division higher than us in the Southern Region Division 1. We were joined today by Sophie………and yes…..Alfie the puppy pug!! We were dealt a blow during the warm up when Melinda withdrew with a pulled thigh muscle. Marc was forced the shuffle players about with Hazel starting at right back and Bronagh playing in midfield. We kicked off playing up the slope and started slowly again, Banbury came right at us and we had to be on our guard as they were looking to avoid a cup upset. We were battered for the first ten minutes as we struggled to deal with their formation, we dug in magnificently and really did ride our luck. Banbury were by far the stronger team and they were spraying the ball around making us work hard to gain possession. When we did get possession we immediately gave it away again and put ourselves under continued pressure. We survived a couple of corners, one corner was well cleared by Clare’s stomach, and we all dug in and managed to avoid conceeding. Banbury were whipping very dangerous looking crosses in from both flanks and we had to be at our best to repel their advances. Banbury hit the post, had several shots fizz just wide and Lou made a couple of good saves to keep us on level pegging. Sadly for us the inevitable happened, we were caught ball watching with a cross whipped into the penalty area, their striker under pressure managed to turn and fire past Lou to give Banbury a deserved lead. We kicked off looking to get back into the match but were subjected to more of the same, the game was being played out in our half, when we did clear our lines it came straight back and we were under pressure again. We started to get our act together and began to create some half chances ourselves in-between the relentless attacks. A fabulous through ball from Hazel (I think?!) found Lara who had sprinted clear, sadly for us her shot just went narrowly wide. We forced our first corner after about 20 minutes, Hazel’s corner was met by the head of Nic but despite getting her header on target found their keeper right behind it. We continued to battle and at 1-0 down fancied our chances to get back into the game, we carved open the Banbury defence on a couple of occasions but found the final ball was over-hit and Newport couldn’t get on the end of it, when she did wriggle free their keeper was quick off her lines to shut down the angle. We conceded again after about 30 minutes, a ball from the right over the top of the defence should’ve been dealt with but instead we got caught frozen ball watching leaving their striker with time and space to fire high over Lou. We kicked off again and tried to get back into the match, our goal was still very much under siege and we battled hard to keep them out. We managed to get to half time without conceding again and were on the receiving end of some very stern words from Marc about our first half performance. Two individual mistakes had cost us and against a team with quality players there is always the danger that you’ll get punished and that’s what happened. The second half kicked off with us playing downhill, we wanted to improve on our first half performance but started slowly again. We got our rhythm together pretty quickly and knew we’d be in a battle to prevent Banbury from scoring again. Banbury came at us time and again and on each attack we managed to prevent them getting a shot on goal. We dug in, the midfield were resolute with Anna, Nimmo, Bronagh and Lara battling for everything and running themselves into the ground. We were trying to hit Banbury on the counter attack, Newport was running her heart out up front chasing every ball down the left. Although it would be fair to say that the balance of play was still very much in our half we were posing more of a threat. We survived several goal mouth scrambles, several corners were well defended and multiple crosses were well dealt with as we dug in. We won another corner about midway through the half, Lara’s corner was met by Nic who managed to get a shot at goal but again found their keeper in the way. Banbury had the luxury of having three substitutes so were able to bring fresh legs on, as the game wore on it became evident that we were tiring and were no longer able to make the runs off the ball that we were doing earlier in the game. We switched things around a little bit bringing Kendall on for Hillier and switching Clare to play upfront with Hazel dropping in at centre half. The relentless attacks continued from Banbury but try as they might they couldn’t get past the defence/midfield combo, bodies were thrown at the ball to block shots, the amount of effort being put in was very evident. As Banbury poured forward they left themselves open to the counter attack which we were trying to exploit but we just couldn’t find the right ball. Towards the end of the game we had our best attacking move, we battled for the ball on the left with Anna bringing it out before playing a cracking ball through the Banbury defence which Clare latched on to, sadly for us the keeper had rushed out to make a fantastic save at the feet of Clare to deny us what would’ve been an absolutely cracking team goal! The game ended with us losing 2-0 and bowing out of the County Cup, we played a team from a higher division who punished us for our mistakes, we pitched in and battled hard but we just lacked a bit of cohesion against a better team who enjoyed the bulk of the possession and pressure. The big positive was that we held them to 0 – 0 for the second half and didn’t get despondent when things weren’t going our way. Next up another cup match in two weeks at home to City Nomads. Player of the match……..Lara!!!!
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 20:40:05 +0000
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