Haverhill Ladies II 3 v Carlton Park II 3

18/10/08

Unfortunately Park were reduced to 10 players on the morning of the game and travelled to Haverhill a player down. Despite this, we started well immediately putting pressure on the Haverhill defence and had the majority of the play. Pressure in the ‘D’ resulted in a number of short corners and eventually, after a few re-bounds one of those was converted to a goal. Park stayed confident although knew that Haverhill did not have a weak team. Park continued to play well and move the ball around and had a significant level of possession however, not long after scoring, Haverhill made a break down the right and finished with a good goal. After this, Park kept battling and not long before half time scored again to lead 2-1 at half time.

After half time, Haverhill improved their game significantly getting to the ball first and blocking all our attempts to advance forwards. Most of the play was in our half and we struggled to get the ball clear of the ‘D’. A series of short corners against us and a number of strikes on goal put pressure on the defence and eventually a penalty flick was given away. An experienced member of the Haverhill team took it and although they scored, Evie in goal did well getting an arm to it. Haverhill knew they were on top at this stage and continued to battle, win the 50:50 balls and put pressure on the Park team who were a player down. This pressure eventually led to another goal to put Haverhill in the lead. Park kept going and managed a couple of attacks towards the end of the match. Eventually, a short corner was given at the end of the game which was shortly followed by another. Before the second was taken the final whistle blew so Park brought all their players forward and after a few saved attempts Bridget found the goal just in time to score a goal on her Birthday! Overall it was a well fought game.

Report by Rachel Knights.