At the third time of asking the Scorchers finally got their game against Ripon completed this morning. With the temperature barely above freezing when we kicked off the pitch was hard and just about playable. Unfortunately the cold also seemed to affect the players with the Scorchers looking sluggish and Ripon certainly playing better than their league position would suggest.
The pitch started to soften and the Scorchers saw more and more possession with every attack seeming to finish with a corner which Emily continually put into the danger areas. These endless corners were eventually to pay dividends as Emily curled it into the goal keeper who was unable to stop it from crossing the line to make it 1-0 at half time.
Plenty of changes were made throughout the game with players trying to keep warm while they were on the sideline but everyone contributed to what was a much better second half performance. The pitch had thawed by this stage and the mud was becoming the next problem, but Scotton continued to press hard but were sometime looking a little open at the back to several strong Ripon counter attacks. The second goal was needed and this eventually came from yet another corner, this time Emily finishing from another great curling corner from Ella.
The third goal was not long in coming, from yet another corner, this time Ella curling her corner dangerously into the front post where the defender could only chest the ball over her own line when trying to prevent what would have been a goal direct from the corner.
At 3-0 Scotton started to relax a little too much and were caught by Ripon on a counter attack 2 against 1 and despite the best efforts of Maddie diving around in the mud in the Scotton goal she could not prevent the shot crossing the line to make the score 3-1.
The game was very even by this stage and for a couple of minutes Ripon started to ask some more questions of the Scotton defence but in the end we regained control of the match and played out the last few minuted in the Ripon half to secure the 3-1 win.
Not the best performance of the season by any stretch but another win has been secured and scoring 3 goals from corners shows the benefit of training as this is exactly what we practiced in our last training session at the Cricket Club.
Player of the match was close between Ella and Emily. Emily scored two goals and had some great mazy runs, one in particular where she managed to dribble the ball around 5 Ripon players and was unlucky not to get the finish it deserved, but Ella was given the award for her continual hard work and some great work on the left wing throughout both halves.
In the friendly the players who had played the majority of the main game sat out and we played a 15 minute game in which we played some very nice football and ran out 2-0 winners with Sam getting two very nice goals and everybody contributing to an excellent practice match.
Well done to all the girls
