Blackburn Indoor Championship Tournament
Blackburn Council Girls’ Under 10s Indoor 5-a-side Tournament
St. Wilfrid’s Community Leisure Centre, Blackburn
Monday 15th February 2010
The next tournament outing for our Under 10s squad and some of the players from the Under 8s squad took place on the above date.
We had a great turnout once again, with 14 girls getting involved from Bury Girls & Ladies FC—entering 2 teams in this Under 10s 5-a-side tournament. We were restricted to a maximum of 7 girls per team, so had originally entered just 1 team, but had to make another entry based upon demand from our girls in the interim period.
Given it was an Under 10s competition, we knew that the event would be a tough one for our girls, so we mixed the 2 squads in respect of age and overall experience. The event itself did turn out to be hard work, given the strength and experience of most of the teams we played, but our girls were once again a real credit to their club, being well behaved, sporting and very enthusiastic.
The matches were played on a ‘round-robin’ basis, where we played each of the other teams in the group and then play-offs took place to decide final standings in the group overall.
The outcome for each of our U10 squad teams was as follows: -
Team members-Courteney, Amy, Jessica, Casey, Kayleigh, Katie and Jo.
Bury 0-3 Mill Hill FC
Burnley Girls ‘Blue’ 2-0 Bury
Darwen Rangers 2-0 Bury
First up was the local Bury ‘Derby’ with both our teams drawn together to open the tournament. Amy and Katie volunteered to act as substitutes for the Whites in this first game and Kayleigh went in nets—thank you to all of them for putting their names forward.
This was an evenly matched game with saves being pulled off at either end as all our girls got to grips with the format of the game, as they were trying their best not to stray into their own goal area and give away a penalty as a result. The girls did really well in coping with this very different indoor game to the type they have experienced to date at the Wigan tournaments hosted by the West Lancs Girls’ League.
The Bury ‘Blacks’ drew first blood with a great goal from Kiera but Casey drew the score level after some great link-up play with her teammates. This was how the game finished, with honours even between the two Bury teams, showing how well balanced the present squad of Under 9 girls and older Under 8s girls is in its present form.
The results of the remaining 4 games did not in any way reflect all the hard work put in by the Bury Whites and the bravery they showed against teams full of girls in at least the next age group up from our team. They fought hard for every ball, once they became familiar with the rules and lost some of an initial tentative approach as they played more games.
The team did experience some bumps and bruises along the way, but we witnessed some fantastic work by our various keepers throughout the games-thanks to all of them for volunteering and trying their utmost to keep out the opposition strikers.
Overall, these were very creditable results from the Bury ‘Whites’, given they played against strong, experienced teams from other clubs and they certainly gave a good account of themselves.
In the play-offs for 5th & 6th place, Bury ‘Whites’ took on the girls from Darwen Rangers and played out an exciting 0-0 draw—they were evenly matched and Bury managed to keep it level, despite having to regroup when Casey had to go off with a bang to her ankle.
Well done to them all—they were a credit to your managers and your parents!!
Bury 0-0 Burnley Girls ‘Blue’
Darwen Rangers 0-1 Bury (Scorer:Kristeen)
Burnley Girls ‘Claret’ 2-0 Bury
As mentioned above, the first game of the tournament saw the Bury ‘Derby’ and it was indeed an exciting game with the Bury management team confused as to whom to cheer on as the game flowed from end to end. We probably ended up with a cross over with both Mark and Graeme giving instructions to both sides. Confused??—Yes-we both were, so just left it to the girls to find their own pattern and positions on the pitch. A draw was the most appropriate result and it was a well-balanced game, with Kiera opening the scoring for Bury Blacks.
Once again, the rest of the games in the tournament for Bury Blacks turned out to be ‘topsy-turvy’ affairs, with a number of the girls volunteering to go in nets and playing in a mix of positions, so that all could have a go if they wanted at being ‘strikers’!!
Whilst they did have a rather unrepresentative 4-0 loss to our present league leaders Mill Hill , the Bury Blacks had a very respectable set of results overall, earning a narrow win against the new girls from Darwen (with an excellent goal from Kristeen) and a good draw against one of the Burnley teams.
Whilst we did lose against Burnley ‘Clarets’ in the group stages, Bury Blacks ended up playing the same team in the play-off for 3rd and 4th in the tournament. This turned out to be another excellent game, with Bury eventually taking the win 2-1 through goals by Kristeen and Jodie.
All in all, the girls played well together, creating several chances and working hard to get familiar with the tournament format and to keep on a level with their older opponents.
It was once again great to see an excellent turnout from Bury Girls & Ladies FC at this tournament. Thanks to the parents for bringing them along on the day and working together to help with transportation to ensure as many girls as possible could take part, even if their own parents had to work on this first day of the school half-term holidays.
As always, the girls were enthusiastic, well behaved and played in a sporting manner, working hard for their teammates. The 5-a-side format used at the event was one with which our girls are unfamiliar and in reality, we will probably avoid similar events played on ‘hard’ playing surfaces in future, as there were too many small injuries incurred as a result of normal tackling during the course of the games.
In addition, the ball-height restriction only served to add confusion, when many free kicks were unfairly awarded, after balls ricocheted off defenders above head height and there was no way in which such defenders could control these situations better.
We were though congratulated by the organisers and the winning / runner-up teams for taking part so well and for staying to support the presentation ceremony at the end.
It would have been nice for all the participants to receive some form of medal for taking part, but they had to settle for a naughty chockie biscuit from Graeme instead!!
Our thanks go to Steve Lee at Blackburn/Darwen Council for organising the event and to the referees used at the tournament.
GRAEME TAGGART, MANAGER & MARK EDWARDS, COACH
Bury Girls & Ladies FC Under 10s Squad
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