This afternoon our U11A team headed off to play against their biggest rivals of the season, Loretto. The squad consisted of Lottie CB (Capt), Scarlett (GK), Olivia M, Emily B, Athena P, Thalia M, Livia M, Beatrice DH & Zinnia. The girls knew the game was going to be a competitive one and were ready for the challenge.

We arrived at Loretto early allowing the girls to have a good warm up. Lottie played a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who would start with the centre pass, Loretto’s captain won and the game started. The girls start off quite slow, waiting for the Loretto girls to dribble towards them rather than going into challenge them. They were also uncharacteristically quiet which did not reflect the bus journey there!

The first 10mins of the game both teams were passing back and forth between their players with little attack on the goals. Eventually Athena had a break from Cargilfield’s defending end, dribbled the length of the pitch into the shooting circle and hit the ball with so much force it hit the backboard with a loud bang, a fantastic first goal.

Loretto started to “up their game” too and Cargilfield’s defence got a wake-up call when Loretto’s attacking players dribbled past them to roll the ball past Scarlett into the goal. Both teams were now very focused with a lot more dribbling and attacking on the goals. Emily had some fantastic hard shots in the shooting circle just going wide of the goal. The first half finished 1-1.

The second half started off well with Bea covering well over on the left wing and even having some great runs up the pitch to assist in attack. Zinna and Thalia put some great strong tackles and passes in to keep the ball out of the shooting circle on several occasions. Athena and Emily’s energy running up and down the pitch as midfield was fantastic keeping Cargilfield in possession of the ball and passing it wide. Olivia’s versatility on the pitch allowed her to play in defence, right wing and even midfield over the course of the game, her hard and fast sweeps driving the ball up the wing into spaces for our attack to run onto. Lottie and Livia up front worked fast dribbling the ball into the circle having a number of shots on goal and finally both scoring one each after some wonderful crosses, textbook goals!

The girls played brilliantly and as a team grow in strength, trust and have a greater understanding of their positions each week! Well done 4-2 win!