A Game of Two Halves

By Lesley Smith

Brooklands Ladies 3 v Runcorn Ladies 1 (2 – 4)
Could the team repeat the heroics of the previous week when they battled and secured a draw against a good Alderley Edge team, although they were again playing against another first team?
The early signs were promising with the team defending well, having a fair amount of possession and putting together some good attacking moves.
However, Runcorn’s tactics of leaving players up front were our team’s undoing in the first half and by half time it was 4 -0 in Runcorn’s favour. The score line however did not reflect the improvement in the team’s performance.
After a rousing half time team talk from Captain Pam Dixon, the second half was a very different affair.
The team made their superior possession count and won a number of short corners.
One of the first short corners of the second half led to the team’s first goal scored with some panache and power by team captain, Pam Dixon, leading once again by example.
Another good spell of possession followed and another short corner was won. Then, from that short corner and following her mother’s example, Holly Dixon scored a fantastic goal.
Unfortunately, the team’s resurgence came too late and they were unable to pull back any more goals.
Player of the match was Natasha Elston, playing again in the midfield “playmaker” role.

By Ruth Lee
Despite missing a few key players, we decided to build on our first point of the season by putting out an attacking team. In the first minutes this worked well and we thought we might get our first win of the season. Unfortunately however, it wasn’t to be. When pushing forward, we left the back exposed and they caught us on the counter attack to score on 4 occasions in the first half.

At half time, the team received a severe bollocking from our captain Pamela Dixon (oh boy it was scary!) and some tactical advice from our coach Cat Savage; with the result that we were a real force to be reckoned with in the second half. We tightened up the defence but continued to attack their goal. It was only a matter of time before we scored. We were awarded a series of short corners which resulted in a goal from our fired up captain, Pamela. This was soon followed by a fabulous goal from Holly Dixon, clearly not wanting to be out done by her dear old mum. Throughout the rest of the game we continued to press forward but were unable to convert our chances.

Although this was another defeat, there were many positives to take in to our next game. Once again, our player of the match went to Tasha Elston, who battled hard in mid-field, but a special mention also needs to go to Maz White who put in a great performance.