Saturday 18th January 2025 (10am Kick off)
A welcome return to footballing action for the girls arrived for the first time in 2025. A tricky away game at Horsforth at a recently redeveloped venue was upon us, which meant the girls had no excuse to not play their usual brand of attractive football. With a few injuries to some of the squad we were light in terms of numbers and only had one substitute.
Kick off arrived after a good warm up by the girls and they seemed to be up for the fight, which proved to be the case within the first few minutes of the game starting. The girls settled into their rhythm and were passing the ball around really nicely. Grace was very lively and driving the team forward along with Jenny and the rest of the team. Less than 10 minutes had passed, and the first goal arrived with Maja driving into the box to score a well taken goal into the bottom corner. This was just a hint of what was about to come over the next 15 minutes, when we scored another 3 goals, all from the head/boots of Maja. All were well taken goals which had been created by some very good build up play where the girls moved the ball around quickly and turned the opposition. The girls continued to press for a fifth goal which almost arrived when Ava cut in from the left after winning a battle out wide, but a heavy touch allowed the keeper to claim the ball at the edge of the box. It wasn’t long before numbers five and six arrived. The first being a lovely touch from Camilla to lift the ball over the keeper and soon after Jenny fired in a speculative shot, which the keeper failed to collect, and the ball was in the back of the net. Maja added a seventh just before half time and the game was well and truly over.
Halftime saw a small reshuffle with Cecily playing left wing and Ava moving up front with Maja. The girls continued to dominate across the pitch with the defensive four playing solidly and the midfield of Grace and Jenny pulling the strings once more. The width was used more in the second half with Izzy and Cecily making some lovely runs down both flanks. It was much of the same in the second half with further goals from Camilla, two more from Maja and a first from Ava which was well deserved for her all-round performance. The girls kept pushing and it could have been more had it not been for some last-ditch tackles from Horsforth, one in particular prevented Cecily getting a deserved goal. With 10 minutes to play Horsforth had a couple of chances to score one snuffed out early on in their attack, the second was stopped in its tracks when Abbie came across the defensive line and made a beautiful sliding tackle.
A must is a salute to the back four of Abbie, Stobbsy, Freya and Poppy who played very solidly and kept their attackers very quiet all game. Finally, Amelia had a relatively quiet game but hats off to her for remaining switched on for the whole 90 minutes as she made a number of important saves to keep a clean sheet.
In the end the game finished 11-0 to Town.
Words from the Captain, Abbie:
‘I couldn’t be prouder of the girls, especially in the icy conditions everyone performed very well. We all communicated with each other and the attitude was excellent. We looked at our very best in the game and that has been missing for a while. Some very well taken goals, special mention to Maja for her finishing today.
Goal scorers – Maja (7), Camilla (2), Jenny, Ava.
Match report: Michael Richardson