Hertfordshire Girls Football Partnership League – Division 1 - 3rd December 2011

Bury Rangers Girls v Kings Langley Belles Girls v (1-3)

Squad: Abby Tallentire (GK 2^nd half), Piper Wright, Darcy Culverhouse, Libby Norman, Grace Garrad, Izzy Alder, Lois Ruane, Grace Davis (GK 1^st Half)

After a run of three straight wins, Bury Rangers Girls came into this match with confidence high and a certain degree of expectation.  They started the match on the front foot and immediately forced two corners in the first minute.  Kings Langley managed one or two counter attacks which were snuffed out by Abby Tallentire and Darcy Culverhouse at the back.  Bury Rangers took the lead after a Grace Davis goal kick found Piper Wright who beat her marker and sent a beautiful through ball for Grace Garrad to poke home neatly.  Bury continued to press and Lois Ruane began to have more of an influence on the match creating a couple of chances for Grace G and Izzy Alder.  Out of the blue Kings Langley caught Bury unawares and equalised with a goal  on the break.  This seemed to galvanise the opposition and they hit the post and excellent clearances by Abby and Darcy were required to stem the tide.  The piece-de-resistance was a fine save by Grace Davis who managed to get her toe end to stop  a certain goal after a KL player had left three Bury girls in her wake.  Grace G had a snap shot just wide and then did her own Maradona act beating half the KL team and a last ditch tackle just stopping her. 1-1 at half time was a fair reflection of the game so far.  Within a split second of the 2^nd half starting Bury were 2-1 down, with 2^nd half goalie Abby Tallentire given no hope with a powerful KL shot. Bury’s passing game then made an appearance with a few sweet moves started by Abby’s excellent distribution, both kicking and throwing.  Lois found herself one on one with the keeper and shot just wide, player of the match Grace Garrad had one or two half chances that were well dealt with by the KL keeper.  Bury forced a couple of corners and Libby Norman nearly profited from one of them, however it wasn’t to be Bury’s day when a penalty was awarded for a push in the area.  Abby did well to avoid having her head taken off such was the ferocity of the penalty which now saw Bury 3-1 down.  Undeterred Bury kept plodding away and had some good territorial advantage but without seriously troubling the KL goal.  Towards the end two fine saves by Abby, one a spectacular tip round the post saved Bury from ending up with an unfair score line.  The final score was 3-1 to Kings Langley.