U12s WELL HAPPY TO BE PLAYING AGAIN

Pride Park U12s were glad to be back playing their first competitive match since 3rd December, following the spate of wet and freezing weather. Whilst the girls have been training hard on passing and moving, shooting and one-on-one skills, it's not like a real match.

Pride Park's manager, Andy, was clear he wanted to see the girls up their competitiveness right from the start. He can't have been disappointed when Pride Park went 2-0 up in the first five minutes thanks to an opener from Ruby, followed quickly by another from Yumi. The match then went quiet for a while, with Pride Park taking their foot off the throttle. With some encouragement from the sideline, the girls picked up'd their competitiveness again and netted a further two before half time. Pride Park kept competing throughout the rest of the game, with some brave individual play resulting in goals for Ruby, Felicity, Polly and hat-tricks for Yumi and Eloise - her first league hat-trick for the team. It was also great to see Polly find some good positions, attacking right in the box by the left post and nearly scoring more.

After the match Andy said "It was good to see all the girls competing right from the off, battling for the ball but this is something we still need to keep improving on. Their effort levels, stamina and drive to have a go at goal were also good to see. I would have liked us to look for space more than we did, more passes strung together and players working one-twos between them, but we must recognise it's been eight weeks since our last competitive match. I was really pleased Eloise got her first league hat-trick, she works hard every week. I'd like to give a special mention to our keeper, who when needed was there and did a great job winning the ball and distributing it back out. Well done team."