Weekend Round Up 20/10/18 & 21/10/18
Saturday
Leicester 2 made the short journey north to face a young Beeston side who’s early season form has been unpredictable.
The early exchanges went in the home sides favour, but Leicester grew into the game. The game was evenly balanced going into the final 10 minutes of the first half until Leicester failed to deal with a Beeston counter attack from which they won a penalty corner. The resulting corner produced a goal after a pin point strike.
The second half followed a similar pattern with neither side creating any clear-cut opportunities from open play. It was another counter attack that Leicester failed to deal with and created a constant overload which allowed Beeston their second.
Towards the end of the game Leicester grew tired and Beeston created their first clear opportunity of the game with the home side forward in on goal Jenna pulled off a remarkable save to keep the score at 2-0.
Leicester's best opportunity came from a quick break down the left with Sandy playing the ball into a sliding Lauren but the Beeston keeper smothered the ball. Having failed to get it out from her pads the umpire gave a penalty corner in the away sides favour. Jen's strike from the top of the circle was saved and Beeston got to the rebound first and cleared.
A third Beeston goal came from Beeston’s third corner of the game, a well worked deflection on the right post to seal the game 3-0.
Both sides traded blows through midfield, but the game only produced two clear cut goal scoring opportunities, both for Beeston from which they scored one of their goals.
THIRDS FINISH 6-1 AGAINST LEICESTER UNI
It's difficult to know what was more exciting about Saturday. The comfortable win, the missed chances that will see us get a cricket score at some point this season, the return of Nat, the average age of the side or the gasps of horror as Anna K learnt to fly mid way through the game.
The whole game was a little too easy, if I am honest. Some players put in performances that are making selection decisions harder each week. We scored 6 goals, conceded a breakaway soft goal through missed tackles but with more composure and communication could have scored another 10 at least.
Nat, and we are not sure how, scored early on in the game to prove she doesn't always get a nosebleed in the D. Karen missed one penalty flick, but with her presence in my fantasy team she was going to take the second and scored. She also notched one from a short corner. Lauren tucked away a nice attacking move, Margot was very composed passing past the goalkeeper and Elise tackled the ball into the goal to bring the final score to 6-1. The game was played in good spirit but Leicester still managed to take out a number of uni players along the way, one walking away with steri-strips on her face- physicality doesn't appear to be an issue this season!
A very good efficient performance. Next week more students and we will need to step up our game again.
Squad: Cas Evans (GK), Anna Kendall, Jess Duffy, Margot Buchanan, Katie Evans Puttick, Karen Dixon, Elise Atkinson, Roshni Francis, Chiara Bensi, Anna Chapman, Elsbeth Woodgate, Nat Gear, Lauren Clough, Emily Kendall
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
Another match and another different squad lined up to play this week against Loughborough Town 2s
The first half was a terrific performance by this young team as the halftime score line stood at 2-1 to Loughborough. The 4’s goal coming from goal machine Lydia Cross.
The 2nd half saw Loughborough up their work rate and skill level and they were rewarded with more goals coming their way, finishing 5-1 winners. Despite the result this group of players gave everything they had and will always bounce back on the pitch with a smile in hand.
Squad: Cas Evans (GK), Anna Godwin, Amelia Gullett, Josie Rule, Caitlin Pittam, Sarah Levy, Sophie Levy, Maisie Brownlow, Beth Warburton, Elena Bensi, Eleanor Izzard, Tara Bhara, Lydia Cross, Helen White
A DOMINANT PERFORMANCE
Leicester City faced their first home fixture vs West Bridgford 9s with a full squad of 16- something none of us thought would happen this season!
Leicester started strongly with Conor sweeping the ball into the back post 2 minutes into the game and David H finding the backboard four minutes later after James was denied his initial reverse flick shot by the keeper. The intensity continued and an excellent link up between JB and Mark led to an opportunity for Jamie that he couldn't quite get hold of.
Goals came thick and fast- 15 minutes in Karl fed to Jamie for a simple tap in on the back post, Mark pushed the next home after 18 minutes when a first strike on a short corner was blocked by the 1st runner, Jamie got a touch in front of goal from a short corner for his second of the game at 22 minutes and Karl tapped the 6th in for the last before half time. Luke and Henry showed confidence in their roles as left and right back turning over the ball and working hard up the sidelines with Boycie and Paul holding strong in the centre. The last 13 minutes of the half play started to get increasingly feisty from both sides and the umpires were forced to give some stern words to players before the half time whistle blew.
The second half saw a drop in urgency and control of the game. West Bridgford were able to win and score a penalty corner from a straight strike at the top of the D, credit to them for taking their chances and exploiting the lack of Leicester dominance to take the game to 6-1. This period didn't last long however and David H started a flurry of goals with a short corner drag flick to the bottom left of the goal. James followed up two minutes later with a reverse hit and a goal bound slap from Declan outside the D was superbly deflected over the keeper by Jamie, making it 2 goals in the 43rd minute. 10 minutes later Karl scored in a goal line scrabble and the final goal of the game was a top right screamer from James with only 4 minutes of the game left. Final score 11-1.
Dominant midfield rotations of James, David, Conor, Declan, Ben and Karl created opportunities working the ball around in the transfer and feeding balls into space for the forwards to jump onto. Commiserations to forwards JB, Ethan and David who despite excellent work rates and a number of opportunities didn't find themselves amongst the goal scorers! A huge thank you to all the players who showed great flexibility playing across a variety of positions.
Special mention to the young West Bridgford Keeper who despite the scoreline played well to deny City more goals.
Squad: Jason Clothier (GK), Ben Sinclair, Conor Maher, Daryl Boyce, David Hill, David Magill, Declan Shepherd, Ethan Pittham, Henry Young, James Sordillo, Jamie Sinclair, Jasraj Bhatia (JB), Karl Taitt, Luke Hardy, Mark Baggott, Paul Lineham
Next week the side have a friendly fixture vs South Notts away 3:00 pb
Sunday
Leeds 0 Leicester 3
On Sunday the 1st XI travelled up to Leeds. After a win against Timperly last weekend, the ladies were looking to secure another 3 points to build some momentum.
Having little knowledge of the opposition it was important that the girls hit the ground running from the first whistle. Leicester did just that, producing some good build up play, the Leeds GK made some fine saves to keep Leicester out. However after a well worked series of attacks Leicester managed to break the deadlock through Mina Nagano. This was closely followed by Rachel Mack taking a well placed strike off a penalty corner routine.
After the halftime break Leicester wanted to dominate the game, however Leeds put the pressure on and came close to scoring. The game was end to end until towards the later stages when Leicester’s Katie Long and Flora England linked up to score the 3rd goal, securing the game.
After the match the ladies were pleased to gain another 3 points and keep a clean sheet. A solid team performance!
