| Match Report |
Worksop match report 28.09.19
Captain Beth Marshall led the side out for the first league match of the season. This one was v. Worksop at Bingham.
It was great to see an unusually large number of supporters at this stage of the season, and especially noteworthy were two grandfathers, those of Ruby and of Abbie. Abbie’s grandfather played against Euan when Euan was Abbie’s age, good to meet up with him again.
It was clear that a number of the under 18s members of the team had been doing keep-fit training during the summer, especially Abbie Rimington, Emma Turner, Bella Whalley, Izzy Brackenbury and Ruby Ryan. Their acceleration and continued speed, plus even more improved ball skills, were a joy to behold.
The more senior players were not left behind, either, and arrived at the game match-ready. It is usually difficult gearing up to team-play for 11-a-sides after the summer break, but this time South were really moving on song from the first minute.
In centre-midfield, Caroline Brackenbury quickly started to create probing attacks and very soon Emma Turner up front identified a fractional gap in the Worksop defence, darted through and slid the ball over the line.1-0.
Beth Marshall was also up front trying to split the Worksop defence. She slipped a neat reverse pass to unmarked Abbie Rimington who made no mistake about drilling the ball into the goal. 2-0.
Then India Clark moved up in intelligent support of the forward line. She ghosted past two defenders to beat the goal-keeper. 3-0. Wow.
So far it was all the under 18s on the score sheet, but experienced midfield-player Caroline Brackenbury restored the prestige by craftily catching the goalkeeper off balance and poaching a goal from absolutely nowhere. 4-0 and it was only half time!
In the second half Worksop cleverly regrouped and mended the holes in their defence, so despite great efforts, South scored no more goals.
In fact Worksop started to counter-attack as South’s foot was taken slightly off the pedal.
This is where Liberty Price came into her own, in goal, and kept sending Worksop packing, a strong controlled performance by Liberty. Well done.
But first Worksop had to get past the back line of Eleanor Wallace, Alice Hounslow and Bella Whalley. Forearms like steel, legs pumping on overdrive, careful marking, all reduced the effect of Worksop attacks.
Up front, Louise Price, Julie Whalley, Ruby Ryan and Abbie Rimington played wide, driving fast and hard to the Worksop base line. They kept making fierce crosses, throwing their defence off balance. Beth Marshall in the centre getting unmarked and making life extra-difficult for their defence. As usual.
Midfield as usual held the key and there was never too much of a gap between defence and midfield and between midfield and the forward line. A real team play and a real team effort, controlled and guided by an extra-athletic goal-scoring Caroline Brackenbury. Sophie Runciman and Izzy Brackenbury kept moving into spaces to come back for passes and collect the ball out of defence, then to push it up into the forward line.
Two things were noticeable.
One was that midfield passing and ball control looked as if the passes were arriving precisely where intended. They were. Very intelligent field-craft.
The second was that the amount of “hit” passes was reduced and the many pushed, accurate, short passes, right on the button, were quick and devastating. Clever use of feet for best balance.
Final score 4-0 to South Notts. An excellent start to the season. The first league game of the season is usually difficult to get team tactics right, but this time South Notts did ourselves proud.
Thank you to Simon Recaldin for umpiring. Coach’s award this week to Abbie Rimington.
Well done Abbie. Well done the team.
|