The U15s followed up their win away at Wetherby last week in the league with a cup victory at the same venue this week. The game today was very different to last week however and the girls had to work incredibly hard to overcome a very determined Wetherby side.
The day started badly as Sam was clearly unwell. She had come along to play in goal for the team despite feeling very ill. Luckily we had 11 players and Honor agreed to take the keepers gloves and play in goal, allowing Sam to go home and back to bed. With Honor missing out of her normal midfield role, where she put in a player of the match performance last week, we needed to re-shuffle the midfield and hope that we could fill the gap.
The midfield had played so well last week and supplied Emily with lots of opportunities allowing her to score a hat-trick. However this week, Wetherby had worked on a plan, and they executed it very well indeed. Wetherby decided to man mark Emily this week to try and stop her from getting on the ball. The player allocated the role did a great job and as a result Scotton found it difficult to mount any meaningful pressure as every ball was quickly closed down. The Midfield was no where near as strong as last week and we relied on the defence of Molly, Lowenna and Georgina to tidy up on more than one occasion at the back.
Midway through the first half the defence were caught napping and the Wetherby striker latched onto a long ball over the top to fire an unstoppable shot into the corner of the net 1-0 Wetherby.
The warning was not heeded and 5 minutes later the Wetherby lead was doubled as a quick throw again found Scotton asleep and the other Wetherby striker hit the ball on the half volley into the top corner of the Scotton net to make it 2-0.
Half time could not come quick enough and the team talk was one of tactics and changes to try and first of all tighten up in midfield and secondly to take advantage of the man-marking tactics that Wetherby were employing. It was clear that the midfield had to work hard and so Emma dropped into the left back position and Molly, Grace, Hattie and Eloise were all asked to play in midfield, with one of them being the sub and continually changing to give each other a rest.
The changes worked almost immediately. Emily ensured that she gave the Wetherby defence a lot more to think about, while Chloe, Grace and Hattie made the most of the space that the changes had created. The Scorchers attacked with speed and defended solidly. From a corner that was won on the right Emily floated the ball right into the danger zone where she found Chloe who was first to the ball and scored to start the comeback. 2-1
The pressure was building but Wetherby were not to be undone and they created some chances of their own but Honor was solid and the defence was superb with lots of great tackling and great covering for each other. Wetherby almost went 3-1 up when the striker found herself in space but she blasted her shot over the bar and the warnings were there that Scotton needed to find the equaliser as soon as possible. This came from a move that we talked about at half time. Emily won the ball in midfield and was surrounded by Wetherby defenders. The space created allowed Chloe to make her run, call for the ball and blast it past the onrushing 'keeper, just what we discuss and just what was needed. 2-2
Entering the last 10 minutes of the game thoughts started to turn towards penalties but a push forward by Scotton through Molly on the left resulted in some desparate defending from Wetherby, after attempted shots by Molly, Eloise, and Chloe the ball eventually found its way to Emily who managed to shoot past the goalkeeper into the roof of the net. 2-3. The celebrations showed how hard they had worked for it but there was still lots of work to do and Wetherby were not to be out done. They continued to push forward and the defence had to be alert.
In the last few minutes another corner resulted in another goal mouth scramble, from where the ball fell to Grace and she controlled the ball, worked it onto her preferred foot and finished smartly to make the score 2-4 and the come back was complete.
A great performance by both teams and the true definition of a game of two halves. Player of the match was difficult, mainly because no one deserved it in the first half and everyone did in the second half! Notable performances came from Emma in defence, Eloise and Grace in Midfield but the award went to Chloe who probably put in one of her most determined and hard working performances of the season and scored two terrific goals, for the second week running.
