Under 14s Reports Archive (December)

Sponsors of the Under 13s

Under 14s v. BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION (Result 1-6) Cup - 05/12/04

 

On the positive side, we approached this game proudly sporting our new kit (which was admired by parents and officials of both teams). Here we must give a big "thank you" to Bryan and Val Turner whose Pharmacy business provided the sponsorship to buy it. Having said that, it would be hard not to have some lingering negative thoughts following our recent massive defeat by Brighton two weeks previously. The girls came out determined to do better. My own personal target was for them to prevent Brighton getting a double figure goal tally, and to try and put away at least one goal ourselves. I am pleased to report success on both counts, in what was a thoroughly enjoyable, yet very tactical game. We had the luxury of thirteen players this week, one of them being Jane from the Under 13 squad who qualified under the two year age rule, and was not Cup-tied, having missed her own team's Cup match due to a holiday. Jane slotted in very confidently on the left of a 3 man midfield. I played Steph as a sweeper, just in front of the back four, the aim being to keep every player tightly marked in the box, and to free up Rachel from defensive duties so that she could build some attacks from the centre of the field. I think some of the girls were slightly surprised at our good start with Brighton being put under pressure and, their counter-pressure being dealt with very effectively. Brighton struggled for ideas as we tried to cut them out of the game whilst maintaining tight possession ourselves. We learnt from our earlier defeat that the Albion players only had to be given a foot or so of space in which to cross a ball or put in a shot, so we tried to deny them any time and space . With a team as talented as this, it is, of course, impossible to cut them out completely but we tried hard with very effective results. We were also determined to prevent as many crosses getting into the box, and Gemma proved a great asset in this respect, getting her foot in at the right moment on many occasions. On 13 minutes Amy P was unlucky not to put us ahead when her header was well saved from Rachel's accurate corner kick.

Just a minute later, and almost against the run of play at that stage, Brighton broke our defensive line and carefully slotted home their first goal into the right hand corner, despite Amy C's attempts to narrow the angle. We kept pushing up when we could, containing much of the pressure when it came our way, and on 17 minutes Rachel broke their line and rushed towards goal. Just as she was about to pull the trigger the ball bobbled on the cut up pitch and she had to take another touch and run on further. Her second attempt at a shot was on the cards, albeit from a slightly narrower angle, when a chasing defender crudely bundled her to the ground. Penalty!

After getting to her feet, and walking off a slight injury, Rachel stepped up to the spot and fired a confident shot into the right hand corner, giving us a very well deserved equaliser. The girls were now really starting to believe in themselves, especially when Gemma got a vital foot in to prevent a cross with two unmarked Albion players rushing into the box. For a while the game stayed fairly even but we did have the odd let off now and then. The most dramatic of these was Rachel's goal line clearance on 26 minutes after Amy had been lobbed as she came out to stifle an attack. Who said she might be relieved of her defensive duties? !!! The half time whistle was getting nearer and things were going well - until the 28th minute that is. We seemed to deal with an initial scramble in the six yard box, only to see the ball hit Amy C full in the face after deflecting off an Albion defender. Temporarily blinded by the impact, she was unable to scoop up the loose ball which was poked in by Brighton to restore their lead (2-1). Thirty five minutes had passed and, if it hadn't been for a couple of earlier injuries, we would not have had to endure a couple of minutes added time. During this period Brighton managed to break the line with one sole runner who homed in for a one on one with Amy. Amy did the right thing and narrowed the angle nicely, but the Albion forward picked her spot, and Amy's timely dive to the left could not quite reach the well placed shot which gave Brighton a 3-1 lead at the break.

 

Although we re-started brightly, an early defensive mix up saw us concede 3 minutes into the second period. Brighton changed a couple of things to try and deal with our tactics, so we witnessed slightly less attacking thrust from our girls in the second half although, on the whole, our defensive game continued to be strong. We managed to hold them for a further 20 minutes or so until the Albion added a fifth in the 24th minute. In the meantime, Amy C had pulled off yet another fine save in the 19th minute. To a casual observer, it might have looked as though Brighton were unlucky not to put several more goals in the net, but we were playing a tactical game and doing it well. I had asked the girls to stay as close to the play as possible with the aim of doing just enough to put them off, or prevent Brighton having the time or space to shoot or pass accurately. I am proud to say that every player in our team did this brilliantly. It is not often that you see quite so many Brighton shots launched way over the bar, or passes failing to reach their target. But we were making this happen. As we started to tire, one last Albion attack breached our defence and they were able to add their 6th and final goal with around 4 minutes left to play.

The whistle blew and we exited the Cup having lost 6-1. But let's look at the facts. Two weeks ago, with a 10 girl team, Brighton had beaten us 21-0.

We set out to score at least one goal in this game and we achieved it. We also set out to keep them to single figures and we achieved that too, by some margin. Brighton have now played 11 games this season without loss.

Only 3 teams have achieved a better scoreline than ourselves. Our passing was accurate and we linked up well, moving for each off the ball. Our defensive determination was superb. We stopped them playing how they wanted to play. Our new kit may well have given us a boost but, at the end of the day, the kit cannot play the game for us. WE played the game and we played very well. Girls, this is one performance you can be very proud of. Before I close this report, I have the difficult duty of picking 'Player of the Match'. In many ways, the award belongs to every girl that took to the field but, today, I think everyone will agree that Rachel deserves the honour.