Old Actonians WFC Res

Mighty Reserves vs Luton Town

Sunday 21st March 2010
Luton Town
by Eilis Kerr

Weather: lovely and sunny Ref: not bad actually, apart from trying to yellow card Eilis before the game for wearing a Newcastle Utd goalkeeper top.

Supporters: Kath! Kath’s friend! And a bunch of chavs reported to the league for homophobic language and abuse behind the goal.

Before we present the match report in glorious black and white text, we need to introduce our new feature, “Polly’s handy hints”. These are little gems of wisdom from our very own Pol, recorded for posterity, and possibly her next book.

Polly’s handy hints #1: Don’t chew and whistle at the same time.

We decided to convoy up, 9 of us congregating outside the Ramada Ealing (aka Polly’s house) and going up. We had meant to leave at 11:30, but once again engineering works that people weren’t aware of had defeated us and we left late.

After having Randy FM (Nat’s ipod) on in the car and listening to her “if you can name this song I’ll buy you a beer!”, and Polly undergoing her athletes regime of stuffing a whole quiche before the game, and we were ready!

We had a warmup which would have been no different to any other weeks except Marian decided to fall and land flat on her behind during the jogging. leading by example as ever (–:

  Eilis

Amy Preeti Marian H Harry Kat Nat Polly

 MV Dani

The whistle blew. We kicked off, passed the ball around, lost it in midfield, they broke, and scored with a chip over the keeper. Ouch. 1-0.

“Don’t worry everyone!” cried Randy, “We still have loads of time to score!” Preeti looked around. “Yes, 89 minutes” she said to everyone within earshot.

We kicked off (again) and tried to hold onto the ball. Luton were extremely pacy and were really causing us problems down the wings. We tried to hold them off, but soon the crosses were flying in and we had a lot of clearing up to do, and we conceded a few corners. Luton kept pressing, and number 2 goal was scored with a nice cross which was met by their striker and planted firmly in the top corner. We tried to regroup, but we were really struggling with the pace and pressure Luton put on us. And then we managed to pull a few nice passing moves together and the tone of the game was shifting ever so slightly.

We broke down the left with Polly and the ball came into the middle. Luton scrambled to clear it and Nat intercepted and went on a mazy run off to the left with. Remembering what we were told to cross the ball, even if there was no-one in the middle, she did so. However MV came flying across the goal, grabbing the ball, turning the defender and planting the ball firmly in the top right hand corner for 2-1! woo! (and the video of the goal is on facebook). Luton looked shocked, and we were right back in this game.

And then Luton scored again. they had a corner, we lined up and cleared the initial danger. However we gave one player too much time on the ball at the edge of the area and she belted the ball into the top right corner. Harry, who was still on the post gave it her best shot at heading it clear, but it was just that bit too high. 3-1.

Our heads didn’t drop, we’d just put one goal past a team 5 divisions above us, who was to say there couldn’t be more?

And then it was halftime. At halftime we all admired Randy’s little cut, approximately |–| that big, and she was applying a plaster |————————————————–| that big to it. Harry and Polly swapped wings and the second half was underway.

We looked the much better team in this half. We hassled and harried Luton into giving us the ball. Kat had bags of room in midfield, and Marian and Preeti started to make excellent use of the backpass. Polly was terrorizing the right wing, and she and Kat combined loads. There was also a new combination this game, Eilis and MV perfecting a “sprint, point where you want the ball and HOOF!” movement when Eilis had kicks from hand. We actually caused Luton problems with this as MV dashed from wing to wing, with period shouts of “argh! bugger!” when the ball missed her. Marian was winning many balls in the air and containing players well, leaving Preeti to sweep up, with Amy and H closing down on the wingers, supported by Harry and Polly. We were really starting to hit our stride.

About 5 minutes into the half for some reason everyone went really quiet on both sides. At this point however we all (including the people in the stands, and possibly everyone in the park) heard the booming voice of Kat saying “ok everyone, that number 10 will turn you if you get too close so you have to watch her closely”. Not only did we all crack up, but the Luton squad all laughed as well, leaving Kat looking around wondering why everyone was laughing at her. Number 10 then promptly turned a player, had a one on one and Eilis was able to save it.

we carried on in the same style of play, and H took the ball on a really long run down the left wing. She rounded two or three Luton players before getting the ball into the area, past another Luton player and with a left footed cross that just skimmed over MV’s head, landed perfectly for Polly who was once again unmarked, unnoticed disguised as a small tree at back post. Polly swung her left foot at it and it curled in for a lovely goal! 3-2!

Luton kicked off and came straight through the middle. Preeti was trying to keep their number 10 under wraps, but she ended up grabbing her shirt as she came through. She soon let go when an huge “rrrrrrrrrrrrripppp!” sound was heard. Number 10 passed the ball and it ended up with a save. Preeti turned to number 10 and said “Oh, I hink I might have ripped your shirt”. Number 10 looked at her and said “I hope not, it’s new”. Preeti ran away.

Luton came at us again. Nat at this point blocked a shot with her bum and thigh and turned to Kat saying “I feel like I’ve just been whipped”. “How would you know?” came back the reply. How indeed… Nat decided to distract from that comment by upending a Luton player who then lay on the floor. Play carried on, and as she was getting up she was instantly tripped over again by Preeti. Meanwhile Nat upended another Luton player and gave away a free kick that we cleared away easily.

Once again Luton broke, a one on one that was palmed away by Eilis, but the ball was still in play. Eilis got up and sprinted towards the ball, now behind her, and she could hear the striker bearing down on her, so she dived on top of the ball, getting up quickly only to find…Preeti behind her, and the striker wandering off back towards midfield. if I’d have known that wasn’t the striker I’d not have dived on the ball, I feel like a right prat" she said to Preeti, who was laughing at her.

We won a corner with about 20 mins to go. Harry stepped up and sent a lovely ball over which Luton cleared. Nat was at the edge of the area and sent a shot goalwards, but it was agonisingly over.

With only 15 mins to go Luton made some changes up front, bringing on fresh legs and trying to put the game to bed. We carried on hassling, Harry getting stuck into some tackles, the midfield really pushing hard. We broke, MV through on goal but unfortunately in between her thinking about the ball and the shot she lost her balance and fell over.

Luton tried to waste time going into the corners, but we would come in, nick the ball from them and head back towards their goal. Polly was very effective with her work in the corners here, winning us many balls. Kat almost put MV through again on goal but the keeper beat her to the ball.

And so the final whistle went. We were unlucky to have lost 3-2, but it was a fine performance from us. I think with that defeat that’s us out of the cups now, and all our focus is now on improving our league position. Onto next week!

Oh, by the way Polly, you left your quiche packet in my car…

PPoM: Nat MPom: Polly Kath’s special PoM: shared between H and Polly.

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