I'm running out of superlatives to describe this team! We totally dominated a much improved Marlow team and could have had several more goals on another day. Sophia played a great ball through which Maddie got on the end of . She still had a bit of work to do before calmly slotting past the keeper with her left foot. We were causing them all sorts of problems, especially Evie on the left who was terrorising their right defence. Marlow equalised on 16 minutes when we switched off a little and got undone by a long goal kick. As we have seen in other games this season, this seemed to galvanise the girls Maddie restoring the lead on 18 minutes after a great pass from Frances.
Just ahead of half time Maddie missed a penalty the ball crashing against the cross bar and us unable to capitalise on the rebound. This didn't dent her confidence though, scoring again with her left foot after a beautifully weighted through ball from Jasmine just ahead of half time. To be honest at half time the game was done, Marlow had offered very little threat with Neve, Sophia , Millie and Abigail tidying up on the rare occasions that they broke.
In the second half we lost our discipline a bit, the passing became less fluid and we started to get a bit greedy taking long shots and opting to take on an extra player when a pass was the right option. With only ten minutes to go this changed again and there were some lovely little passes through midfield and their keeper made some great saves. Maddie laid a lovely little pass off to Frances who forced a save from the keeper and Sienna made a great run before dragging her shot narrowly wide.
On 57 minutes their keeper scuffed her kick out and the ball fell to Maddie in the middle who took a couple of touches before literally smashing the ball through the net!
Frances added two more before the final whistle, capitalising when the keeper spilled the ball from a great shot from Sienna and then scoring again with a great shot from outside of the box that deservedly won her the MIM award from the parents.
Overall another really solid performance. Everyone giving it their all. Millie and Sienna were unlucky not to get on the scoresheet. Rose was great in goal when she was called on and huge kudos to Amalia for a solid performance on the wing, up front and at right back.
POM went to Neve for an imperious performance at the back, winning the ball back on more than one occasion after their coach had uttered the words "Your through on goal!"
We still have some stuff to work on in training - especially dealing with high balls and ensuring we keep our passing going when we are on top, but I can't fault the girls effort, team spirit and determination. It is great to see the improvements the girls are making every week and there was some absolutely sublime football on display at times. The ref even came over at the end to say how much he had enjoyed the game and how excited he was for the future of this 'special' team. Every week the girls make Wayne and I proud and it has been really rewarding to see their development over the season. One more game to go, lets make sure we finish on a high!