U14 Girls - Bury Rangers Reds v Bishops Stortford (2-0), 28/01/2012

This week Bury played Bishops Stortford at home in a league match.  The last meeting between the two sides resulted in a 3-3 draw.  The match started well for Stortford, with good pressure and build up play; attacking the Bury defence on many occasions in the first 10 minutes.  The best early chance came from their number 10, who went round three Bury defenders but a last ditch tackle by Charlotte Baron denied her a shot on goal!.  Charlotte was subbed shortly afterwards due to injury.  Manager, Grant, moved a couple of players around and sure enough Bury started to push forward, to control the midfield and attack.    After 25 minutes, a nice cutting pass through Stortford’s defence by Abbie Bensted for Nene McInerney, allowed her to nicely tuck the ball under the keepers body to put Bury up 1-0.

Stortford didn’t waiver and kept pushing forward.  They created a few chances, with one cleared off the line by Megan Sende and another blocked and tackled by Phoebe McMurray.  However, the next goal was to be Bury’s, a good counter attack saw the ball passed from Phoebe to Megan to Nene for her to hit home 2-0.  There were exchanges end to end, but the half finished at 2-0.

The second half started the same as the first with Stortford pushing forward.  Bury weathered the early attack and countered brilliantly, always putting Stortford under pressure.  Bury could have added another 3 goals, with chances from Nene, Abbie and a great shot from Rebecca Weston.  There was good build up play that just missed the finishing touch, although Stortford were strong in defence.  Stortford had their chances too, one hitting the post and another that Immi Palmer headed off the line.  However, overall Bury deserved their 2-0 win.

It was a great all round team performance, with Bury probably having 65% of possession and more attempts on goal.  This match was a great advertisement for girls’ football.