DHUFC Under-10 Girls v Cricklade YFC

Cricklade YFC 8 DHUFC 10
We had the opportunity for a friendly against "non-league" opposition today, Cricklade Youth FC being a new girls team who were looking for some opportunities to play matches. This was also an opportunity to give full matches to some of the players who have not featured regularly. With several players unavailable we ended up with only 7 players

Team: Sara, Ellena, Katie H, Eleanor, Hannah, Elsie & Alison.

We had played Cricklade earlier in the season in the Devizes tournament where we won fairly easily so were not sure what to expect. The pitch was sadly very small which seriously affects the quality of football, however it was a friendly so no complaints.

The girls quickly stamped their authority on the game and were 2-0 up within a couple of minutes of kick-off. However, we then seemed to switch off and become over-confident and by half-time Cricklade had levelled things up at 4-4. The small pitch was contributing to the high number of goals.

At half time we made a couple of tactical changes swapping Hannah into midfield and moving Eleanor to replace her at left back. This seemed to pay dividends and we opened up an 8-4 lead. Then again the girls seemed to switch off, perhaps due to some of CYFC substitutions, and CYFC again pulled us back to 8-6. Sara then saved a penalty after a handball. The sore moved on to 9-7 and then e scored a 10th goal which looked likely to be enough but Cricklade got another back which left us with a nail biting finish.

Five goals each for Elsie and Alison, with some very good goals amongst them. The girls all put 100% effort in today and although we conceded a lot of goals everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Special mention for Eleanor and Ellie who played full matches today and also to Sara, some great saves, especially the penalty.

Some lessons to learn: We need to move into space more and away from our own players, too often we get in each others way.

All in all an enjoyable match on a nice bright sunny morning (makes a change). Good weekend all round with the U-12s winning 7-3 and Saints beating Pompey 2-1 ;-)

Thanks to all our supporters as usual, its a long trek up to Cricklade.

Next week - away to Swindon Badgers, 10.30 kick-off at Lainesmead School, Swindon.

Jon