Vs Morpeth
The Phoenix maintained their 100% record with a victory they ultimately only wrapped up with 2 minutes to go. In reality it was a game they dominated from start to finish and should have won by a far bigger margin. The girl’s started brilliantly; again the catalyst was the understanding Lola and Anya had for their wing back roles – becoming attackers when the ball is on their side and the 2nd defender when the ball is on the other side. The shape we maintained meant we attacked down all three channels and give Ruby and Lucy time and space in midfield in which to dominate the game, taking up good positions and playing some excellent forward passes.

We took the lead early on where Jess, in typical fashion, dropped deep to collect the ball before quickly beating two defenders become dispatching past the goalkeeper. The attacks kept coming with Anya and Lucy both coming close before Lola got the team a deserved second after a good team move. We nearly added a third with the best move of the game. Lola played a nice kick-in to Ruby deep in our own half, who turned and burst passed two players into the Morpeth half before releasing Jess, who shot narrowly wide. A brilliant move.
Morpeth pulled one back against the run of play on 20 minutes as we lost our shape for the first time in the game. We had further chances to regain a two-goal lead before half time with Sophia going close and Eve and Lola denied by two excellent stops by the goalkeeper. We were caught by a sucker punch just before half time as Morpeth equalised with a counterattack goal.

The message at half time was we had played excellently because we had played with good shape, but the two goals conceded showed the importance of playing in our assigned positions and keeping our shape.
The second half started as the first had with attack after attack and the Morpeth ‘keeper making saves from several of the girls. One brilliant move saw Ruby make a cross field kick-in to Lola on the edge of the area, who’s shot was saved. Ruby, Eve, Sophia, and Jess were combining excellently, with all 3 running at defenders and showing good rotation; when Sophia/Jess dropped deep, Ruby and Eve were making runs into the forward position. The third goal came from a similar rotation with Eve being played in from the halfway line, before running through and firing home.

Further chances came and went, whilst any potential breakaway equalisers were aborted by Alice and Masie, who were solid in defence. This was another game Ruby M had very little to do in goal, other than two saves I can recall. The game was finally put to bed when Lucy fired in from just inside the area to cap an excellent performance in midfield.

On most weeks, several performances would have won player of the match. The opposition choice was Alice, which I think was a sound choice. She had been made Captain for the day in recognition of a) the selfless role she has been playing for the team and b) her emerging leadership within the Group. Any potential Morpeth attacks were nullified with her bravery, pace and reading of the game. Incidentally, the girls’ have now renamed Alice as ‘the wall’. Great performance by all.