MATCH REPORT- 19th DECEMBER 2004
Clapton Orient 4v3 East Barnet (League Cup)

Rachel,
Mandy, Laura, Sabrina, Jen B,
Krystal, Latasha, Choko, Lucy M,
Jema, Karen
Subs Claire and Lucy H

A cold winter's day saw us kick off half an hour earlier than usual due to this cup tie, would we be tempting fate by preparing for the thought of extra time, you could say so.

East Barnet showed that they weren't going to give us an easy game and they battled very hard to take a 0-2 lead at half time. They took their chances and punished us for not taking ours. We started to battled a lot more for the ball and our passing started to pick up. Claire came on for Jen at half time and Lucy H replaced Laura in the middle of the second half. We were caught offside a couple of times and started to carve out some chances for ourselves. Karen was one on one with the keeper and their keeper pulled of a good save to deny us. Persistence was the name of the game and with some great work from the forwards, Karen scored two goals in the second half to take the game into extra time.

We seemed to be asleep at the beginning of the first half of extra time as straight from the kick off East Barnet were on the attack and from outside the penalty area their player struck the ball over our defence and over our keeper to go into the goal (a puzzled Clapton looked on in amazement). More chances were made by both teams and both keepers pulled of some great saves to keep both teams in the match.

Once again we seemed to be asleep as from our own kick off, in the second half of extra time, some lax play and indecision nearly led to East Barnet scoring another goal. This seemed to give us a kick up the arse as we seemed more determined to get another goal. A clearance from our defence went straight into their half. With some pressure from Karen their defence made a mistake and Karen was able to slot the ball through to Jema for her to equalise. As the final whistle was drawing near the thought of penalties crept into our minds, luckily for us Krystal popped up to score her first goal of the season.
The last couple of minutes were very tense and the ball didn't leave our half as East Barnet battled to score another goal. The final whistle blew and Clapton scream with joy and relief. East Barnet battled hard through out the game and showed that league positions don't count when it comes to a cup match.

Player of the match Karen:

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