Sunday 11th March 2007

Fry's A vs. Fry's B

Forget Chelsea against Spurs for the FA Cup semi final place, the only real game to watch on Sunday the 11th of March was Fry Club Girls A vs Fry Club Girls B under 14s and what a game it was!

With the weather fine and a make shift 7’s pitch crafted out of an eleven a side pitch this game was always going to be a tough game for the Fry's Club B girls against top of the table Fry's Club A girls, who remain the unbeaten runaway league leaders!

The Fry Club A team girls came out with all guns a blazing for the first five minutes. The B team girls defended strongly but very deeply in their own half and just about managed to hold on! The B team Girls playing staff could be seen praying that the B Girls would hold on, settle down, weather the storm, then maybe break out of their own half and start to attack themselves without conceding a goal first! Well sure enough after around five minutes the Fry Club B girls had pushed the play back into the middle of the pitch and had started to play football.

Now that the B team were a little more settled Danni started to move into space instead of trying to chase every midfield ball down, thus leaving herself free for a pass which in turn she hoped would get Amy away and into a goal scoring opportunity. Around ten minutes into the first half that's exactly what happened. With a lovely little tap over her opposite number she sent Amy off , who duly delivered a great goal to put the Fry Club B team in front!

Well the battle then raged from one end to the other with chances to score at either end every minute or so.

At around the half way mark of the first half, the A team girls drew level at 1-1 and heads dropped slightly in the B team which the A team capitalised on and scored again at around twenty minutes to put themselves in front 2 goals to 1. Cruelly they scored a third only minutes later making the score 3-1 to the A team.

With Danni now running on empty it was time for a change in the midfield to give the rest of the team a respite and to inject some fresh pace in the middle. Welcome to the mix Steph. This seemed to settle things slightly as was the plan. A few minutes later for the same reason, a shattered midfielder Emily Tite who probably had her best half of the season! was changed for the Fry's B teams new secret weapon Sophie. The Fry Club B girls picked themselves back up and started to play some nice football again. With only a couple of minutes left on the clock for the first half, Sophie sent Steph off down the right wing, she cut back in and scored a lovely goal! Fry's Club A, 3 Fry's Club B, 2 end of first half!

The second half started just as the first with the A team girls piling on the pressure but Emma at right back, Alice at left back and Charlotte in goal were having none of it. They worked their socks off to hold the score at 3-2 until around ten minutes of the second half had gone when the A team scored again to make the score 4-2 to them.

Having worked so hard pushing up and back, the midfield once again needed a lift so Danni returned to replace Steff. This change yet again picked up Fry's B and Emily Dean, Sophie and Amy who should have been down and out due to the pace, score line and nature of the game still kept trying to put Fry Club B back into the game.

Sadly the A team scored against the run of play again to put the game out of reach at 5-2 at around 15mins into the second half.

Unbelievably the Fry's Club B team girls still wouldn't roll over and much to their credit gave it everything until the final whistle, and so nearly pinched a goal back on several occasions!

At the final whistle both teams had given their all and had played a great fair and exciting game of football that the score line didn't really relate to as being an end to end affair!

As for mentioning playing performances of the Fry Club B team Girls here goes.

In no particular order:

Amy -ran so hard she ended up with two horribly blistered feet and in the second half even tried to dig lost causes out from her own half!

Steph - great impact and goal after coming off the bench.

Danni - ran for every ball tackled at every opportunity and looked to get her team mates forward when ever she could in both spells on the pitch

Emily Tite - worked her socks off, held the defensive line of the midfield brilliantly and put her feet and head into places that really counted

Emily Dean -worked flat out, slowed up for a few minutes then worked even harder! with some great tackling and forward movement in the second half.

Sophie - worked her socks off with some lovely passing and movement

Alice -got a little lost for the first two minutes trying to help Emma out at right back! as well as playing left back! and that's not a complaint! Alice you can’t do it all! After she settled down and covered the left and a little bit of the right she was truly outstanding!

Charlotte -goal keeping can be sole destroying at times one mistake and it shows a mile off, if you are an outfield player a mistake is soon forgotten and covered up! She had a tough first half, but to her absolute credit stepped up to the plate and gave a second half performance that any keeper at any level would and should be proud of both brave and skilful!

Now that is every player bar one that has had a mention this week as it really was a full team effort very well done girls! Believe it or not there was still a player that just stood out above the other players to receive player of the match! Emma for her non stop running tackling forward passing and never ever, ever giving up on a challenge very well done!

And a few words from the manager