U10 Jaguars v Duffield Dynamos
There were periods of great play with confident passing and great defending. We need to work more on keeping possession in the oppositions half. Special mention to Katie for her debut appearance and to our POM Esther O who fought continually up the wing. Also, Alicia who made some great blocks and saves, especially one save from a penalty. This was a difficult game, but we can learn a lot from these games and continue to improve.
Carole

U11 Lionesses v Shardlow
The girls played really well at times and there was a good glimpse of the excellent football they can play when they put their minds to it.

For the first twenty minutes we were amazing, showing excellent defending from front to back. Lily-May gave it a really good go in midfield - it seemed to suit her and she showed good promise here. The front three were brilliant, dynamic and determined with lots of shots at goal, won loads of corners - and there were a couple of excellent strikes by Jess; it was a joy to watch.

Shardlow are a good team and came into the game more as they grew in confidence, but Pride Park remained determined.

A massive thank you and well done to Jasmine for going in goal and covering for Emily who sprained her wrist– it was very brave of her to go in and give it a go, continuing to try throughout – getting more and more confident as the game progressed, starting to get her hands on the ball and stop the goals going in – it’s a very steep learning curve – but towards the end she was looking a lot more confident, producing a couple of brilliant saves.

The girls weren’t able to maintain the performance level of the first half, the determination and effort faltering in the second half. The highlight of the second half was Zoe beating two Shardlow players with skill and ease, finishing off with a cracking left foot shot. We need to continue working hard on defending - if we can improve this we’ll be in with a great chance on match days. Overall, it was a good performance from all the girls, with the positions working well, and an excellent first twenty minutes - we just need to do that for the full 60 minutes.

P of M was Evie - well done, great work and thank-you for offering to go in goal, if needed.
Gary

U18 Panthers 0-8 Stratton
It’s disappointing that we had something of an off day against a side against which we might have hoped to make more of a contest of it, but we didn’t play to our potential until the last 15 minutes.
The girls’ effort can’t be faulted, they fought hard all over the pitch but we were to slow to react to the ball and Stretton took advantage.

We need to have more self the belief that we can compete with the teams around us, which we will, if we play to our potential. There was only really one goal that we couldn’t do anything about but we could have done better with the others - through more communication and attacking the ball to put them under pressure

Paige was player of the match through sheer work rate, Harriett playing a new position and Carys’ calmness on the ball looking to make things happen.

Let’s starting playing like we do at training and taking that into the matches because we know that every single one of our players has the ability
Aaron