Ladies Survive Deluge to Secure Win

The Ladies got their League campaign underway with a winning start at Moorways yesterday, all the goals coming in the first half.

For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, we had the luxury of a full bench. It was good to see Jodie returning from her hip injury, and rotation meant she was joined on the bench by Rachel, Annie, Bleu. There was a late change, with Fran starting with Otty taking her place on the bench, but unlikely to feature due to illness.

After heavy overnight rain there were some concerns about the pitch, but they were unfounded, as the playing surface was in excellent condition - although, understandably, soft underfoot and slick on top.

We started well, and were making the early running. As the quarter hour approached, we built up down our left, before working the ball across the Mickleover area. Eluding everybody in the middle, the ball was met at the far post by Fran, who calmly passed the ball into the net for the opener.

Summer worked some space inside the penalty area, cutting back inside from the left to unleash a fearsome shot which the ‘keeper did exceptionally well to push round the post. From the resultant corner, Tash hit an in-swinger at about thigh height which curled inside the near post, and an attempted clearance could only help it on its way, to put us 2-0 up after 23 minutes.

There is a saying that you’re at your most vulnerable when you’ve just scored, and within a couple of minutes Mickleover pulled a goal back. It was similar to our first goal, in as much as the ball was played down our right, worked across field, and a player arriving late and not picked up had the time and space to pick out a very good well placed shot from the edge of the area to beat Jade to her left.

We thought we’d extended our lead when Summer was played in, and curled a precise shot round the keeper into the far corner, but the goal was pulled back for an earlier offside.

Just after the half hour the first of our changes was made, with Annie coming on to give Maja a breather. Annie made an almost instant impact, it may even have been her first touch, as she was the only player to react to a ball behind Mickleover’s defence that looked like it was going out, but didn’t give it up and retrieved the ball near the goal line, and picked out Summer in the centre to finish from close range

Mickleover were playing with five in midfield, giving them a numerical advantage, but we resisted the temptation to match up and had coped well with it. Although they had a few promising moves, but aside from the goal, Jade had been largely untroubled - I can remember her only having one shot on target to deal with, which she held well, being called into action to punch away from a corner

The second half was memorable mainly for the deluge that came around midway - there had been a few squally downpours since kick off, but just after the hour the heavens opened and everybody was literally soaked through in a matter of seconds. It was so bad, the referee contemplated abandoning the game after 65 minutes, as it became impossible to see upfield, as the wind had got up and was driving the rain into the players faces. Fortunately, it eased off a little and though still very challenging, we were able to finish the game. Nevertheless, it made for extremely difficult playing conditions, with the ball skidding up off the surface, making first touch and control exceptionally tricky, and requiring passes to be weighted carefully to avoid over hitting them.

Playing into the wind and driving rain was proving difficult and we were finding it difficult to get upfield for a while, and were pegged back in our own half. We defended well, however, and whenever Mickleover looked like they might find an opening, they were quickly closed down and the shot blocked.

As the game came to a conclusion, however, Mickleover pushed players forward and had a couple of shots on goal, but Jodie was equal to them - the second in particular an excellent save, as she will have seen the ball late as the shot came through a crowded penalty area, and was down very quickly to her right to not only stop the shot but to gather it in safely. The conditions weren’t comfortable for any of the players, but were a goalkeeper’s nightmare, so it was immense credit to all three ‘keepers that they did as well as they did.

Despite these difficulties, we had several opportunities; Tash saw a direct free kick go just wide of the post. Annie in particular was timing her runs well and broke through a couple of times one-on-one with the keeper, but saw one effort come back off the ‘keepers outstretched leg, and the other drift just wide of the post, and was also very close to connecting with a header six yards out, but couldn’t get enough on it to direct it goalwards.

It was a disciplined performance in exceptionally challenging conditions, perhaps not quite as eye catching as the game between the sides a couple of weeks ago (in very different conditions!), but it was particularly pleasing to have kept a clean sheet in the second half, battling the elements as well as the opposition, which was enough to secure the three points. It’s been noticeable this season that the communication between players has gone up a notch, and this is undoubtedly playing its part - there’s still things we can improve on, but it’s good to be building a little run of results.

We are now one of five teams from 3rd to 7th on 3 points at this very early stage of the season, and next week we travel to another of those five, Hasland.