MATCH REPORT-3rd OCTOBER 2004
C.E.F.I v Clapton Orient WFC
Played:
Rachel-GK,
Jen B-LB,
Katy-CD,Sarah-CD,
Mandy-RB,
Helen P-LM, Helen D-CM, Sabrina-CM, Krystal-RM
Jema-ST, Karen-ST,
Sub: Latasha, Anita and Carrie
A rainy day in South London awaited us this week.We started strongly and kept putting pressure on our opponents. From the off our defence was straight on them and a couple of their players started to get annoyed with the referee for not giving them free kicks.We continued to put pressure on them as they started to argue among themselves. We kept our cool and with some brilliant inter-play between Krystal, Karen and Sabrina we set up our best chance for a goal with Jema heading the ball over the bar. C.E.F.I started to make us laugh as they continued to argue with each other, and towards the end of the first half Jen was elbowed in the face.
In the second half Anita came on for Jen, Helen Parr went into the left back position while Anita went to left midfield. The more pressure we put on them the more free kicks we were giving, and this lead to them scoring. The ball kept skidding along the wet surface and at times it was getting hard to control it. Karen came off with Krystal pushing up front and Latasha coming on in right midfield.With C.E.F.I arguing about our players being offside Helen Parr threaded a pass through to Sabrina who was left one-on-one with the keeper, but she hit wide. More persistence from Jema and Krystal lead to the equalizers. Krystal's cross was dropped by their goalkeeper and a goal line scramble lead to Jema poking the ball in.
We kept fighting to the end with C.E.F.I coming close, on a few occasions, to snatching victory during the last minutes of the game. Over all we were better organised and we had a more relaxed approach to the game and I think it showed. We played a lot more calmly, considering the wet conditions and we were happy with 1v1 result.
Player of the match: Katy
MATCH REPORT-3rd OCTOBER 2004
Enfield 3rds v COW Reserves
Team: Gel, Anja, Hannah, Jude, Maggsy, Jo, Bucky, Maria, Mooch, Clare, Estelle, Tori.
Clapton made an edgy start following a curtailed warm up. Enfield enjoyed the majority of the early possession and whilst our outstanding new defensive line stifled most of their attacks, their first goal came after around 15 minutes. Great covering by the midfield and defense held off still more Enfield forays, but a second goal followed not long after. The latter part of the first half was encouraging, and Clapton came back strongly into the game, stringing passes together, and some excellent attacking play resulted. The first half was marred by stroppy behaviour on the part of enfield, but as ever, Clapton rose above such immature antics.
We started the second half brightly, and dominated the midfield. Our goal came not long into the second half as Estelle pounced on a beautiful through ball by Anja, pressuring the goalie into a mistake which allowed her to calmly slot home. Suddenly Clapton had all the possession and came close to scoring several times, notably with an excellent move involving at least 6 players. Gel even managed to remain (relatively) calm in the face of petty fouls by the opposition captain. The game might have turned out very differently had it not been for an excellent breakaway goal by their no. 11, who had been the driving force of Enfield throughout the match. Even at 3-1 down, the COWS continued to attack, but were unable to convert the pressure.
A stonking second half performance by all concerned, particularly shero Maria, augurs well for next week.
Funniest moment - when one of the enfield players commented on how
young
our team looked!?!