If there was ever going to be a tough match between 2 even sided teams, this was the match. FC Chippenham just ahead of us in the league travelled to a wet and miserable Ballards Ash.

The girls had not trained or played any games since several weeks before Christmas, so this tested them to the limits and as manager/coach was surprised by all their efforts.

We had a good squad to play this match today, with the exception of one of the main defenders, Emma, who could not make it. She was replaced with Julia (normally midfield), she kept her cool and tried her hardest with every ball which came her way, this with Felicity, who as ever kept up the solid wall before midfield and the goalkeeper.

We put Rosie up front who ran her legs off and made a good attempt to score quite early on in the game.

This game had structure to the 1st half, plenty of tackles, hard marking and pressure to the opposition kept the scoreline at 0-0.

A good hard talking to at half time and a sub was made (Sophie Jones for Charlotte).

The 2nd half started off slow and some of the team struggled, this led to Chippenham scoring their 1st of 3 goals. Handball in their goal area led to a penalty which Sarah took, which was unlucky for us as their goalkeeper saved it. Plenty of excellent saves from Sarah prevented them for scoring during the next 10 minutes, until they managed to score again, they attacked with some big players which made us submit, the girls were now slowly getting tired. Then Felicity (defender) came from nowhere, took the ball from our own half, up the wing, though several players including their defenders and attempted to score.

Sarah came onto the pitch in midfield during the last 5 minutes, Charlotte then turned into goal keeper. The hat-trick was put behind the net with the full time whistle at 3-0.

This game keeps us at 6th position in the league in front of Derry Hill who have a game in hand than us, and like us only winning 1 game for the moment.

We play to Swindon Town next, and if the squad play as a team like they did today, we should put up a good fight.

Credit: Unknown
Last modified on Saturday 26th December 2020 at 13:24