Town Green Girls V Preston North End Girls U11’s
League Match
Sunday 27th September 2015 11.30am Kick Off
Nine of the eleven squad members were available for Preston for the match at Town Green (a village on the south side of Ormskirk), meaning that Carl had two substitutes available.
With the fans and managers in a narrow gap between the pitch and a neighbouring match, the game started with PNE starting with some nice interchanges between the midfield with Town Green chasing the ball down with little opportunity given. This play continued for much of the first ten minutes with the PNE shots just being a little wayward. When Town Green did get the ball into attacking areas their striker (who worked extremely hard and was all over the pitch) was well shepherded by the PNE defence who were very vocal and organised.
The continued good play by PNE’s midfielders and forwards ended up being successful which led to even more confident play and the girls, in general, making all the right decisions whether to dribble, pass or shoot in the first half.
In the second half, with PNE now playing slightly uphill, the good play continued but a little bit of the fluency seemed to be missing. Decision making was still generally good with a few incorrect decisions being made but the players were still working hard for each other. As the players began to get a little tired the play got a little disjointed between defence and attack but the PNE goal was rarely threatened and every Town Green attack was well managed by the goalkeeper, defence and midfield of Preston.
More goals didn’t come in the second half but PNE remained the stronger team throughout.
A great performance by all nine girls who looked best when they made the ball do all the work with the quick, accurate passes between themselves gave the opposition very little chance. The passing in the second half although good at times was not as sharp as in the first half. With the substitutes sometimes not playing quite where they were asked to, PNE lost a little bit of shape later in the game. The players should take heart at the end result and in particular the great first half performance.