On a wet day in Harrogate the U14's traveled to Ilkley to find that the rain was leaving this corner of Yorkshire alone and despite the pitch being very heavy, the sky was clear of rain. This was a top of the table clash with the Scorchers looking for revenge for their one and only defeat this season when they lost 1-0 on the opening day of the season.
Ilkley started brightly and took the game to Scotton but after the first 10 minutes the Scorchers started to get a grip of the game and made Ilkley work much harder for their possession and create some chances of their own. It was from one of these moves that Emily put the ball through for Chloe who, despite the close attention of the excellent Ilkley defence, got a powerful shot away which beat the keeper hit the cross bar, bounced down and back out of the goal. The Scorchers were in no doubt that they had taken the lead but unfortunately the referee eventually decided that the ball had not crossed the line and ruled out the effort.
This unfortunate set back spurred the Scorchers on and Chloe went on a couple of good runs while Honor, Grace, Becky and Courtney all contributed to a good period of play. Unfortunately the Scorchers were undone by an opportunistic goal when possession was lost direct from a goal kick and the Ilkley striker pounced to put Ilkley one up. This visibly lifted the Ilkley side while the Scorchers felt hard done by and their performance dropped. Sam, in goal, made two outstanding saves to keep the score at just 1-0 but half time found the girls behind 1-0
At half time the girls were asked to step up their game, win more tackles and dominate more in midfield, but unfortunately it was lkey to did just that and as the half wore on Ilkley created more chances and Sam continued to keep us in the game. However Ilkey found more space and in particular they created several good one-on-ones as a result of great interplay and 2 goals in quick succession finished the game for the Scorchers on a 3-0 reverse.
Despite conceding 3 goals Sam was still player of the match as she could not be faulted particularly in the second half and in difficult playing conditions.
