What a fantastic match to end the home season on. End to end, lots of passion, commitment and running from two teams withouts subs. The only sad thing is that it will probably be Ridgewood's last ever match, as the number of girls left playing for the club has reached such a low level that they are likely to fold.
5 girls arrived on time ready for the early 9am kick off. Where was the sixth? Waiting to hear the whistle from her bedroom? Just as we kicked off, Lauren rushed through the gate and sprinted to the game still eating her breakfast.
With ever present Lucie not present and Emma, Caitlin and Kate all away, the team was down to a bare 6. Ellie offered to start off in goal leaving Lily, Kiera, Elia, Rebecca and last minute Lauren outfield. A diamond of 1-3-1 for the tacticians.
Minutes into the game though the visitors took the lead when a ball wasn't cleared properly and the red shirted Rangers slipped into the net from close range. Elia though was playing really strongly and as she went forward her shot was challenged by a defender but it looped goalwards and into the net. 1-1 and back in it.
Lily went in the nets after another visitors goal and made some excellent saves and the team looked more solid and became more familar with only having 5 outfielders. Lauren and Rebecca were non stop runners covering the attack and defence whilst Kiera and Elia were more the play makers. Ellie in fit for the day Man City socks covered the back on her own. Kiera grabbed a goal back but Ridgewood got another goal to take a 3-2 lead into the interval.
In the second half Lily stayed on in goal before giving way to Kiera and then the dead on her feet Elia. All of the goal keepers played brilliantly and all made crucial saves. Lily , who was playing brilliantly, grabbed a goal back, then Ridgewood scored and then Ellie got another from close range despite the heroic efforts of the visitors defence. Rebecca had a brilliant shot meeting a low cross from the right perfectly but her effort was inches wide. Lauren was so close to getting on the mark too with an excellent effort.
A draw then was on the cards until the final minutes when with Waverton pressing, Kiera scored what she at the time thought was the equaliser but was in fact the winner. The final seconds were played out by 12 shattered girls but the referee blew the whistle and Waverton had won its second game in a month and extended its unbeaten run to the best ever. The girls dropped to the ground and all had given their all.
The game was played in a brilliant spirit and a fantastic way to end the home campaign.
Player of the match was once again, Elia and for Ridgewood Molly Brewster.
Lauren, Lily, Ellie and Kiera stayed on afterwards for bacon butties and to play in the u16s game v Greenleas. All made great contributions to that team with Kiera voted player of the match. Ellie hurt her ankle again in that game and will be out of the games this week.
With Ellie's injury we only have four player available for the game on Tuesday against Birkenhead Youth at the Delph. We have therefore decided to concede it, disappointing given our current run of form, but we can't play with only 4 girls. On Thursday we only have 4 girls too for our game against Upton (ko 6:45 at Overchurch School, Upton), but we are hoping to bring at least a couple of our current u12 girls along too. We will let everyone know.
In the light of the cancellation of Tuesday's game we will run with training this Monday, 7-8 at Waverton, where again some of the u16s will join us. Hopefully we will play our final League game on Thursday and then we have the Sandbach tournament on Saturday. We all need to be there for 1pm. More information on here later. Lifts offered.
Confirmed squad for Thursday - Lily, Emma, Kate, Rebecca.
Confirmed squad for Sandbach - Emma, Lucie, Lily, Ellie (subject to fitness test), Caitlin, Elia Rebecca, and Kate.
We need to start making arrangements for next season and have to put in details of our teams for 2011/12. We intend to enter u16 and u14 teams but not u12 as we are lacking in players. We will talking to all parents and girls about their intentions for next season but we hope everyone will be back playing for us next season.
We also need to think about our end of season celebration. The girls are still talking about Alton Towers!
