The U14's latest league game saw them travel to York for their second encounter of the season with Heworth.
With a starting line-up of Georgia, Molly, Georgie, Emily (called up from the U13's for the absent Ciara), Becky C, Emma, Hannah, Ellie and Jayde, Scotton immediately attacked and quickly had the ball near the opposition's goal - only for Heworth to gain possession, race down the pitch and force an early save from Jayde.
For the first ten minutes play ebbed and flowed, with the Heworth girls competing fiercely and Scotton looking a bit constrained by what appeared to be a narrower pitch than they're used to. However the Scorchers gradually began to get the measure of the opposition and good passing between the forwards started to lead to shots at goal, culminating in a terrific cross from Georgie on the right which was put away beautifully by Molly: 0-1.
Heworth came back strongly from the restart and threatened to score on a couple of occasions, but each time they were either denied by Jayde's goalkeeping or their assaults were snubbed out by good tackling from Emma, Hannah and the ever-composed Ellie. With the ball being quickly passed back
up the field the forwards continued to increase the pressure on Heworth, gaining three corners within the space of a few minutes and seeing the ball sail over the bar twice from headers - first from Georgia and then from Emily. Despite these efforts, and further strikes from Georgia before half time, Scotton went into the break just one goal up.
As usual the coach made some changes for the second half, with Jayde coming out in place of Emily, Riah going into goal and Becky S subbing Emma.
Heworth again started positively, but the Scorchers were quick to gain possession and attack again. First Georgie had a good strike and then Jayde saw an opportunity and (once again) demonstrated her versatility with a neat shot that brought the score to 0-2.
Now looking comfortable and confident Scotton continued to press Heworth's defence, who managed to avert another score only after a couple of scrambles around their goal. However this turned out to be a temporary state of affairs, as Scotton's forwards (continually receiving good ball from Ellie and Hannah) surged forward again and again, culminating in a goal from Georgia: 0-3.
To their credit the Heworth girls never let up, giving the two Beckys, Ellie and Hannah plenty of work and getting far enough forward to force saves from Riah (who showed great anticipation each time and was in exactly the right place to deal with the threat). Then a throw in from Hannah found Georgie who belted down the right wing, beat the defence and calmly slotted the ball past Heworth's keeper: 0-4.
As the minutes ticked away the Scorchers continued to target Heworth's goal - a good run from Molly down the left nearly ending in a further score, and a long-distance strike from Ellie just going wide of the post. However seconds later the final whistle blew, and the match ended at 0-4.
This was another great team effort by the U14's, against a spirited Heworth side who never gave up and played attractive football.
Player of the Match (as chosen by Heworth): Georgia.
