TWHC U13 girls away v Canterbury

I am absolutely delighted; the girls were outstanding this afternoon and came away with a deserved 3-2 win.
Every single girl played at 100% if not higher, your attitude today was commendable, thank you for making my afternoon a pleasure!

A great start with multiple attacks, our forwards executing their lead running well and our midfield able to drive through into the D; we had quite a few chances to score in this first half but it just wasn't to be. Canterbury struggled to get the ball out from defence due to the excellent press set by the team; something I had spoken about before the game, so was delighted to see this executed.

Defensively marking was tight, we took our 16's quickly and were able to drive some long passes down the wing. We were however trying to play down the centre too often without success; a need to focus more on width in the second half. Mia had a great chance just before half time to get a lead, narrowly missed goal. An impressive first half with some things to work on.

Second half saw a slower start with Canterbury showing a little more aggression and driving effectively down their right; all this pressure resulted in a goal; we were 1-0 down within the first 5 minutes. The girls heads did not go down; the opposite in fact; they were hungry for an equaliser and did so fairly quickly; a pass through their defensive backline by Anjalie to Mia allowed her to nicely slot the goal in the back of the net. 1-1.

We continued the pressure and effectively used the width, the next goal resulting from a drive along the base line by Anjalie, a pass to Charley who connected beautifully with the ball to slot another goal in the back of the net; 2-1. The lead not long lived as some more pressure from Canterbury, and relentless defending from Wells finally did lead to another goal; 2-2.

About 6 minutes left in the game and we were still piling on the pressure; Lottie continuing to pick out red shirts with some wonderful passes from our 16's. One of these found Anjalie who was able to eliminate the Canterbury defence to score our winner; 3-2 the final score.

Lucy; made some great saves particularly in the second half to keep us in the game
DK; her first match back after injury and you would not have known, absolute solid performance with outstanding marking and tackling
Anna; tenacious, never gave up and put in some brilliant tackles to thwart their right wing, loved your physicality.
Niamh; brilliant tackles and so composed both on the left and right defence.
Viv; superbly versatile today with a stint at midfield; her low tackling was unbeatable
Lottie; controlled the defence and brilliantly distributed the ball from 16's, finding a red shirt every time
Thea; great passes from midfield up to our wings
Betsy; versatile at forward and midfield, outstanding work rate and a brilliant attempt at goal that only narrowly missed
Charley; true grit and aggression today, great midfield work and scored an absolute cracker of a goal.
Maddie; great working back to defend and stop their wingers down the line
Anjalie; nice skills
Mia; brilliant lead runs and delighted you got your well deserved goal
Daisy; work rate excellent and never gave up, brilliant at the press and causing a nuisance to their defence.

Woman of Match as chosen by Canterbury; Anjalie

Well done girls, you should be incredibly proud of yourselves, you played as a true team and never gave up. Let's take everything from today into our next match.

Jen x