Hertfordshire Girls Football Partnership League – U10 Division 1 – 21^st Jan 2012

Hitchin Belles Girls v Bury Rangers Girls (3-1)

Squad: Grace Davis, Abby Tallentire (GK2), Libby Norman, Madeline Vincent, Grace Garrad, Lois Ruane (GK 1^st Half), Izzy Alder, Lillie Southwell, Darcy Culverhouse.

On a windy January morning and buoyed by the result of the last visit to Hitchin, Bury Rangers Girls were in confident mood going into this match against Hitchin Belles. Straight from the kick-off Grace Garrad went past 2 players and the ball just ran out of reach to the Hitchin keeper.  Grace’s 4 goals in the previous match had made her a ‘marked man’ and Hitchin paid her the compliment of ‘man marking’ her in this match with not only one but sometimes two players. The match was pretty even, Abby Tallentire put in a couple of good early tackles and 1^st half keeper Lois Ruane made a couple of good saves, however a little spell of Hitchin pressure resulted in a goal putting them 1-0 up with a strike that Lois, could do nothing about.  The pressure intensified on Bury’s goal and the terrier-like Darcy Culverhouse, tackled and cleared Bury’s lines on more than one occasion.  The back 3 of Darcy, Abby and 1^st half keeper Lois were keeping Bury in the match. Bury slowly began to get more of a foothold in the game and must have remembered some of their premier quality coaching earlier in the week!  A nice move begun with Grace Davis in the midfield playing a great ball to Libby Norman, who in turn found Grace Garrad, her snapshot was well saved by the Hitchin keeper.  With confidence growing and the shackles loosening Libby found Grace D in the Hitchin penalty area who held the ball up well before being tackled, the loose ball fell nicely to Grace Garrad who hit the back of the net for Bury’s equaliser.  Immediately after making it 1-1, Abby went on a good run down the right and hit a near perfect defence splitting pass to put Grace G through on goal, but the Hitchin keeper was in great form and denied Grace once again.  Hitchin on the counter-attack were kept at bay by Lois who produced a Pat Jennings like save with her feet to keep parity. The remainder of the first half could be described as end-to-end, with player of the match Darcy Culverhouse playing an epic game at the back, Abby taking one for the team after being hit full in the face by the ball, Madeline Vincent and Lillie Southwell probing away in midfield to create the odd chance for Grace G and Izzy Alder.  Honours even at 1-1 at half-time was a fair reflection of the game.  The second half began with 2^nd half goalie Abby providing great entertainment for the crowd with a comedy drop kick but that aside Bury did well and began to look the more likely scorers. Lois Ruane robbed one of the Hitchin players and set Grace G free who hit the side netting with a rasping shot.  Izzy not to be outdone made her own crunching tackle and set Bury forward on an attack that nearly ended in a chance for Libby.  Lillie saw off a couple of Hitchin attacks with some excellent covering back helping out the defence.  Lois and Grace G were becoming more influential and a great one-two saw Grace bearing down on goal only for the Hitchin keeper to pull off another fine save.  A long kick out put the Bury defence under pressure and a Hitchin effort was once again Jennings-like saved by Abby with her feet, but the ball was crossed in again and her footwork couldn’t come to the rescue this time as the ball nestled in the back of the net to make it 2-1 to Hitchin. A goal kick from Abby found Lois who ran the length of the pitch crossed in and Libby hit the ball just wide of the goal.  With Bury committing more forward the chance for Hitchin to counter increased and they took advantage of this by scoring a third to make it 3-1.  Undeterred, Bury carried on pressing and a sweet move starting with a goal kick from Abby finding Libby who in turn found Grace G and yes, you’ve guessed it, the Hitchin custodian made another excellent save.  With a little luck it could have been another 4 goals for Grace but unfortunately the girls had to settle for a 3-1 loss.