U11s Match Reports

"All 2010-11 season Under 10s squad match reports are being compiled by our parent volunteer reporter Paul Douglas. Thanks to Paul from the Under 10s management team, players and grateful remaining parents for all his hard work!"

19/03/11        Burnley Girls vs. Bury Girls & Ladies FC

 

After all of the excitement of Monday’s League Cup Final, today’s fixture against Burnley had a definite air of “coming after the Lord Mayor’s Parade” about it. This wasn’t helped with the game being scheduled for the Saturday, which meant that a large chunk of the squad (and whilst we are at it, the noisy half of the management team) would miss the trip to Towneley Park, because of other commitments.

 

I don’t know about you, but we seem to have been down to play Burnley in a league or cup game every weekend for as long as I can remember now. However, the weather in “them thar hills” has proved to be a touch extreme at times this season. I’m sure many of you will recall the original postponed fixture back in November. On that day, despite leaving clear blue skies and sunshine in Bury, we were greeted by a rainstorm of such Biblical proportions that Noah would have been frantically dusting off his copy of “Build an Ark in a day”!

 

We then had all of the shenignans of getting the cup Semi-Final played in the midst of a full-on Siberian winter. That game eventually took place at the sixth time of asking and whilst the game may have ended memorably with a thrilling victory for Bury Girls, Burnley gave our girls a tough time in the process, particularly during a sublime first half display.

 

I think in terms of skill on the ball and an appreciation of how to play the game properly, Burnley have been one of the best teams we have faced this season. When you also factor in that the Clarets still have a realistic chance to clinch the league title and were bound to be keen to exact revenge for the Cup defeat, today threatened to be tough challenge for a Bury Girls side that have had a very good season overall, but no chance now of finishing higher than around “mid-table” in the overall league.

 

Hot on the heels of her magnificent performance at the Burscough final, we had Sophie R continuing in between the sticks with midfield dynamo Elana picking up the captain’s armband for today’s match. The change in captaincy had an immediate impact, as Bury won the toss and elected to play “downhill” in the first half.

 

Bury Girls made a fantastic start to the match and almost caught the home team off guard at the back. Within the first minute, Eloise came very close to giving us an instant advantage when she burst through the middle and had a venomous shot from the edge of box blocked by a desperate covering defender. A minute later, Siana snaffled up a loose goal kick and linked up again with Eloise, before the Bury number three was once more denied when her firm drive was excellently saved by the Clarets’ keeper. The number of goal-scoring chances we created in the first two minutes meant things were starting to look up after our disappointment at losing the cup final.

 

However, before anybody dared voice such confident assertions out loud, we saw at first hand the silky skills of the diminutive Clarets number ten, who picked up the ball deep in her own half and proceeded to dribble her way through the heart of the Bury defence, before clinically firing the Clarets into the lead.

 

The goal seemed to settle the Burnley team’s nerves and for the rest of the half, they took firm control of the game passing Bury to death. We had very little answer for the

Messi-esque threat of Burnley’s number ten – her close control and dribbling skills made her at times unplayable.

 

She came very close to doubling her tally in the seventh minute, when another dazzling run was ended with Sophie R bravely diving at the attacker’s feet to steal the ball away. However, a minute later, Sophie R could do nothing to stop the Burnley wizard’s rifled shot from the edge of the box making it two – nil to the Clarets.

 

With Burnley now on the rampage and threatening to score at will, we entered a period in which Bury could scarcely get outside of their own box. Fortunately for us, and under intense pressure, Sophie R was once more in inspired form and made a string of brilliant stops to keep the rampant Clarets at bay, until a relieved Graeme could rally the troops at the break.

 

It is fair to say the 2-0 half time scoreline flattered Bury and with the Clarets now attacking downhill, I feared a rout. With Sophie R playing so impressively in our goals, few would have predicted Bury coming out for the second half with Courteney, who had “run her socks off” in the first half, taking over between the sticks and the ace keeper going into the forward line.

 

The positional switch seemed to do the trick, as Sophie R started imposing herself in the centre of the park. Whereas in the first half Bury had been guilty of allowing Burnley too much time on the ball, the Bury team now took a leaf out of Sophie R’s book and harried the Clarets for every ball. Erin in particular seemed to revel in this revitalised spirit and turned in an immense performance at the back.

 

With the Clarets finding it much harder to work the ball through an energised Bury pack, the balance of play started to revert to the visitors. Our great work rate and pressing was rewarded in the 31^st minute, when Sophie T delivered a great corner to the feet of Sophie R who turned and fired home a well deserved goal.

 

For the remainder of the game, it could have gone either way with Bury pushing hard for the equaliser and Burnley quick to threaten on the counter. Courteney had an excellent half in goals and produced two particularly fine stops that denied the Clarets a killer third goal.

 

Unfortunately for Bury, the equaliser never did quite materialise today, but the Girls can hold their heads up proudly after coming so close to salvaging an unlikely point against a once more impressive Burnley team.

FINAL SCORE: Burnley Girls FC 2 Bury Girls & Ladies FC 1

Bury squad: Sophie R, Erin, Nicole, Courteney, Siana, Eloise, Elana (Captain), Sophie T & Charlotte.

 

 

14/03/011    Mill Hill Girls FC    v    Bury Girls & Ladies FC

 

              West Lancs Girls League U10s Cup Final - held at Burscough FC 6.30pm kick off   

After winning out in the epic five goal Semi-Final thriller against Burnley, this crop of Bury Girls had progressed through to their second successive League Cup Final. Once more, the opponents for the day would be our old adversaries, Mill Hill Girls, but confidence was high amongst team and supporters that today would be the day that we claimed our first silverware.

The venue for the final was to be under the floodlights of Burscough F.C.’s Victoria Park. Despite a few reservations about the location and the early evening kick-off time, I’m glad to report that the potentially tricky rush hour journey wasn’t too bad. There were obviously one or two exceptions though. Casey and Angela (without the aid of a Sat Nat) took the scenic route with some fine improvised route planning on the cuff. That just left manager Graeme and clan, who despite reiterating the early meeting time of 5.45pm, didn’t roll up until gone six. Still I will let him off as team captain Sophie was travelling with him.

Two of our league squad could not attend the final for various reasons, but still received the same medals as all of our other girls. One was Erin, who kindly agreed to be rested due to league restrictions on the size of the final squad—Thanks Erin! The other player who sadly had to withdraw “at the 11^th hour” was our regular goalie-Sasha. I’m sure everybody will echo my thoughts that her goalkeeping has been magnificent this season and her starring performance in the Semi-Final once more highlighted her importance to the team. We are very lucky to have Sasha in our squad and all of the girls were gutted to find out she wouldn’t be able to join them for the final. Fortunately for Bury Girls, we have more than one classy goalkeeper in the squad. For today’s final, Sasha’s “big” goalkeeping boots would be filled by the ever reliable Sophie R.

With the main stand now starting to fill up with excited parents and family, the Girls had their first chance to try out the lush playing surface and get accustomed to the bright glare from the floodlights. After twenty minutes warm-up, both teams then retired to the Main Stand’s changing rooms for final instructions, whilst the pre-match tension built up to a crescendo in the stands. Finally, the two sides were paraded back onto the pitch and the teams were formally introduced over the P.A. to the baying crowd. Following all of the pre-match formalities, it would be interesting to see if either team froze on the big occasion.

From the ref’s first whistle, the game was played out at a frenetic pace with the Bury team showing real commitment against their tricky opponents. The importance of the match to both sides was clearly evident through the determination that was put into every tackle. The game had barely settled down before we were reminded again that the key battle for Bury would be how well we dealt with the threat from the Blackburner’s dangerous number 11 – Eve Clarkson.

For the first three minutes, all boded well for Bury as we kept the ball pinned down in the Mill Hill end. Then, a Bury attack broke down and Eve picked up possession by the half way line. Despite desperate attempts to close down the MiIl Hill ace, she ran on to the edge of the box and unleashed a thunderbolt that left Sophie R with no chance of saving the shot. In an unfortunate nod to last year’s final, we once more found ourselves trailing from Mill Hill’s first attempt on goal.

Bury Girls dusted themselves off and went on to enjoy a ten minute period of prolonged pressure where the Blackburners struggled to clear their lines. Every loose ball and 50 / 50 tackle seemed to be won by a white shirt, but as much as we tried, we could not prise our way through a well-packed Mill Hill defensive line. That Mill Hill are such a tight defensive outfit should come as no surprise, as they have kept 6 clean sheets out of their 9 league games so far this season.

When the ball did break loose for Eloise or Jodie in our forward line, they were immediately closed down by a wall of red-shirted defenders. The determination shown by the Mill Hill team was best demonstrated following one memorable run from Eloise. Having picked up the ball by the touchline, she cut back towards the box dribbling her way past two Mill Hill players. However, before she could steady herself up for a shot, she suddenly found her path blocked by another three defenders, all anxious to extinguish the chance.

With Bury enjoying the lion’s share of possession and double-marking the dangerous number eleven when required, Mill Hill’s offensive threat was looking limited. However, they did look dangerous on the break and came close to doubling the lead in the eighth minute, when a pacey counterattack ended when a shot flew just wide of our right hand upright.

With half-time fast approaching and Bury Girls looking to the break for a change of luck, Mill Hill forced a corner on the left. Through a crowded box, the corner ricocheted through a melee of legs and landed at the feet of Mill Hill’s number 7 (Marriyah Khan), who skilfully turned and squeezed home a shot into the back of the Bury net.

Conceding so close to the interval seemed to knock Bury’s concentration levels and Mill Hill pushed with renewed vigour to kill the game off. With seconds left of play, Sophie R produced a magnificent diving save to deny the Blackburners a killer third goal.

The half time break gave everyone a chance to catch their breaths after a rollercoaster opening twenty minutes. Whilst Bury Girls really had their work cut out to bounce back from a two goal deficit, it was not beyond the realms of possibility. During the first half, it was apparent that Bury had the measure of Mill Hill in midfield, but we did struggle to support our forwards in the box and as a result, the Mill Hill keeper had a remarkably quiet half despite all of the possession we had enjoyed. You would hope that sooner or later, given all of the pressure we were exerting, that we would benefit from a defensive slip up or lucky deflection to give us the clear sight on goal.

Both managers took the opportunities to freshen up their starting line-up by making a few tactical substitutions. With Bury Girls needing to up the ante in the second half, there was always going to be a risk that we left ourselves open at the back. That was almost the case in the 22^nd minute, when Sophie T produced a magnificent blocking tackle in the box to deny the Blackburners a third goal.

However, from my vantage point behind the goals, it was noticeable just how little time the ball spent in and around the Bury penalty area. Thankfully when it did, Sophie R was more than equal to anything that was thrown at her.

As tiredness crept into the teams, Bury started to find gaps in the Mill Hill backline that the pace of Siana could exploit. In the 27th minute, Eloise managed to cut in on from the left flank and hammered a shot that flew narrowly wide. From this point on, Bury continued to carve out a succession of half chances, but as in the first half, the ball just wouldn’t seem to drop favourably at the critical moment.

Another noticeable factor in the second half was just how little space Mill Hill’s creative players were allowed to weave their magic in, before Bury’s trio of tough tackling warriors (Kiera, Sophie T & Elana) snuffed out any possible threat. On the one occasion Eve slipped free of her markers, she was clean through on goal with only Sophie R to beat. To casual observers, it had goal written all over it, but as all of us that regularly watch the Phillips Park training sessions will affirm, in a 50/50 challenge, you could safely stake you house on Sophie R coming out on top. Sure enough, “Vinny” Rowlands once more won the day.

Until the very death, Bury continued to try and salvage the match with Sophie T coming mighty close to scoring in the final minute, but alas another famous comeback wasn’t to be today.

I think every one of our players deserves great praise for the effort and attitude they showed throughout the match. We may have lost the game, but the Girls’ work ethic and maturity was a real credit to the club and players alike. In last year’s final, despite a similar score line, we were well beaten by a far superior team. This year, despite conceding an early goal that put us on the back foot for the whole game, the Girls rallied and for large periods of the match, we appeared to be the team in the ascendency. The quest for silverware may have to wait for another season, but the development and improvement in our squad is clearly there for all to see.

Congratulations must go to Mill Hill, who were worthy winners on the night. It is worth noting that whilst their star players delivered in front of the goal when it counted, their victory was as much down to the efforts of the whole team who so effectively stopped Bury playing to our own strengths.

In a game full of so many great performances from our players, Sophie R deserves special praise for her great display between the sticks. She had very little chance to keep out either of the goals she conceded and produced some great saves when we needed them.

In summary, despite losing the final, I think it’s safe to say that if prizes were awarded for post-match celebrations, Bury Girls would surely come up with the gold medal!! (I still can’t get rid of the smell of stale lemonade from my car). Putting the disappointment of losing aside, the Girls really enjoyed the big match experience and let’s hope it fires them up to make it 3^rd time lucky next year.

FINAL SCORE: Mill Hill Girls FC 2 Bury Girls & Ladies FC 0

 

Bury Squad:-  Sophie R, Nicole, Kiera, Sophie T (Cup Captain), Elana, Eloise, Jodie, Amy, Courteney, Siana and Charlotte (Non-travelling substitutes-Erin & Sasha)

 

05/03/11     Wigan Athletic Girls FC     v     Bury Girls & Ladies FC

The match started slowly on a cold day, but Bury Girls kept up the pressure against the opposition with some good tackling skills on show, particularly from Nicole and Siana.   However, Wigan soon got control of the ball, going past our defenders and leaving our keeper Courteney) to face the Wigan No.9 on her own.  Despite her best efforts, Courteney could not stop the Wigan player from scoring a very impressive goal. Wigan 1 Bury Girls 0

Bury Girls were not deflated by this and came back fighting with some good passing football on show.  Their efforts were soon rewarded, when excellent tackling and persistence from Sophie R on the right took her past the Wigan defence.  From there, she squared the ball back into the centre for Sophie T. to score a remarkable curling goal from half-way inside Wigan’s side of the pitch.  Wigan 1 Bury Girls 1

After a quick team talk at half time, the play commenced again with some good tackling and resolute defending from both teams.  All our players were in the action with revolving substitutions being made to keep everybody involved. We were short of substitutes on the day, due to a number of players having other commitments, so it is true to say that tiredness may have become a factor in heavy pitch conditions.  Our keeper (Courteney) made some great saves, but as we pushed forward for a win, we left ourselves too exposed at the back.

Despite some great defending (in particular, a great recovery from Erin chasing down the fast Wigan left-winger, who had sneaked past her near the half-way line), we were eventually caught out by a strong run and excellent finish from the main Wigan forward.   This goal broke our concentration and whilst we tried to regroup immediately thereafter, two further quick goals sealed our fate this time.   All the girls in both teams played exceptionally well in a very tough match.  For a long period, it had been a stalemate at 1-1, but the overall experience, goal- scoring ability and teamwork of the Wigan girls eventually won through.  The final score line was a little harsh on the Bury team, given all the effort and hard work they had shown on the day,

It was though a game played out thoroughly in the right spirit and in a very sporting fashion--well done to all involved!

FINAL SCORE: Wigan Athletic Girls FC 4 Bury Girls & Ladies FC 1

Bury Team: -  Sophie R, Erin (captain), Nicole, Siana, Sophie T, Elana, Charlotte & Courteney.

Guest Reporter-Deborah Alty

 

13/02/11    Bury Girls & Ladies FC vs. Burnley Girls & Ladies FC

                    West Lancashire Girls’ League—League Cup Semi-Final

When the names of Burnley and Bury Girls were drawn out of the hat together for the League Cup semi-final, few could have guessed the epic nature that this clash would eventually take on. Since the original scheduled playing date of the 15^th January was postponed due to Burnley’s pitch being waterlogged, we have had a string of cancellations leading to this Sunday’s match at Phillip’s being the sixth attempt to stage the match.

That it was played at all was largely down to the Herculean efforts of Mark and Graeme. When it comes down to going that extra mile for the greater good, you’ve got to hand it to our intrepid duo. However, at time of going to press, it remains unclear whether GM Police are still looking for the two shady characters that were spotted in the vicinity of the Phillip’s Park pitch at 10 pm on the Saturday night before the match. A quick word of advice here boys - not too sure they’ll buy the pitch inspection alibi!!

Still, come Sunday morning, two things were immediately noticeable – how fine the pitch was looking and how far back the respect barriers were. I don’t know whether the management had been tipped the wink to expect trouble from over-exuberant supporters or had been paying way too much attention to all of the Olympic stadium controversy. Either way, you could have easily accommodated an eight lane running track between the touchline and the rope barrier. If the rope was to be moved back any further, you’d need a pair of binoculars to be able to see the game. However, on a positive note, standing further back did mimic being able to turn the volume down a couple of notches on the particularly loud and vocal Mark!!

Despite Bury Girls fielding a very strong line up, it soon became evident from the opening exchanges that Burnley would be a very hard nut to crack. The bad weather may have prevented the Clarets from playing any competitive matches since November, but they certainly didn’t look at all ring rusty as they soon settled into their groove and gave Bury Girls a master class of intricate passing football. Burnley’s number 10 looked a real gem of a player and she seemed to majestically pull all of the strings in their attacking moves.

The game was barely ninety seconds old before Sasha in our goals was called on for the first time to snuff out a dangerous Burnley through ball. Fortunately for Bury (and even by her own high standards), Sasha was to be in inspired form today. Burnley kept up the onslaught and on eight minutes, Sasha produced a wonderful stretching stop to deny the Clarets’ lively number eight. However, despite all of their possession, Burnley were unable to make their early pressure count as Bury Girls started to get to grips with the job at hand. Offensively, Bury, playing into a strong head wind, struggled to find a way through the well-drilled Burnley defence. Despite this frustration, our forwards and midfield continued to work very hard for each other and surely their perseverance would reap rewards in the end.

Then, with thirteen minutes played, Bury had a lucky break, with Sasha launching a long goal kick deep into the Burnley half. The ever tenacious Jodie chased and harried the Burnley defender into making a back pass to the keeper which the ref duly penalised. Sophie’s ferocious free kick from the edge of the box saw the ball clearly handled by a Burnley player in the wall and the man in black had no choice but to award Bury a penalty. If ever there was a need for somebody with a cool head to deliver, this was it. Eloise bravely grabbed the ball and clinically smashed home the spot kick to give Bury a very fortunate one goal lead.

For the rest of the half, Burnley came back at us very hard and kept Bury Girls firmly pinned in their own half. Fortunately, resolute defending and strong goalkeeping kept the claret tide at bay. The half time whistle could not come soon enough to give our girls a chance to grab their breath again after such a torrid first twenty minutes. To say that the score line was against the run of play doesn’t really do justice to Burnley’s first half dominance. With the exception of the penalty, I can’t really recall the Burnley keeper having to make a save at all.

Half Time--Bury Girls 1 Burnley Girls 0

The second half started as the first had ended with the visitors on the charge and Sasha brilliantly keeping the ball out with her legs. Bury however had also rediscovered their attacking mettle after the break and following a great move between Eloise and Jodie, Jodie was unlucky to see a snap shot from an acute angle beat the keeper but sneak past the wrong side of the post.

In the 24^th minute, Sasha produced another fine acrobatic save--this time at full stretch to deny Burnley’s dangerous number ten. The game was starting to become increasingly open as Burnley pushed forward in search of an equaliser and Bury posed a real potent threat on the counter attack.

In the 29^th minute, Siana came really close to doubling the lead when Eloise played her in on the left flank. It was at this point that I overheard one of our squad reserves commenting that she thought we could win this now. Talk about tempting fate……no sooner had she said this, then Burnley broke down the other end and the ball was pulled back to the impressive number ten, who deftly slotted home the equaliser.

However, any thoughts I may have harboured that the goal would rock Bury’s confidence were fortunately short-lived. Within a minute, Eloise burst into the penalty area and smashed a wicked shot from the angle that came back off the left hand goal post, before hitting the back of the prone keeper’s head and (unluckily for us) rebounding safely into touch.

For the rest of normal time, both teams pushed hard to try and snatch a victory, but the decisive winning goal was not for coming. It must be said that Bury turned in a much better second half performance and finally got to grips with dealing with the threat of Burnley’s talismanic number ten, through a combination of sheer hard work and inspired keeping from Sasha at the back.

Normal Time Bury Girls 1 Burnley Girls 1

And so it was that we entered into the unchartered territory of playing two x 10 minute periods of extra time. With two minutes gone, Burnley wrestled back possession of the ball and won a free kick by the right hand touchline. A seemingly innocuous lobbed cross caught the wind and sailed agonisingly just beyond Sasha’s reach before dropping into the corner of the Bury net. Whether it was a stroke of brilliance or supreme good fortune, I wouldn’t like to say. Whilst you couldn’t really argue about the Clarets being well worth their lead in the context of the whole match, the manner in which the goal was scored seemed really cruel given Sasha’s earlier heroics. I don’t think I was alone in fearing the worst--I just hoped that the second goal wouldn’t open up the flood gates at the Bury end.

I should have known better by now and if anything the goal re-energised Bury to give it one big push from the restart. Eloise was once more denied by a fine save from the Burnley keeper in the 44^th minute, but the attacking tide seemed to be turning in our favour at last. Two minutes later, Siana picked up the ball by the half way line and threaded through a pinpoint pass to Eloise, who charged into the box before sliding the ball past the advancing keeper to level the scores up again.

As extra time progressed, all of the additional fitness work the girls have been putting in recently started to pay dividends. For the first time in the game, Bury seemed to have the measure of their opponents across all areas of the pitch. One of my personal highlights of the match was watching Courteney make a magnificent sliding tackle that would grace the pages of any coaching manual.

After a thrilling final period of extra time and non-stop box to box action, it was looking as if we were heading towards the lottery of a penalty shoot-out. Then, with barely a minute to go, Bury pushed forward for one last chance. The ball broke back out of the crowded box to Elana, who drilled her shot back through the melee of players and into the back of the Burnley goal. There was barely enough time for the visitors to kick off before the referee blew the final whistle to herald the wild Bury celebrations both on and off the pitch.

It is only right that we should spare a thought in our triumph for Burnley, who were without doubt one of the toughest opponents we have faced this season. If the boot was on the other foot, we would be gutted at losing a match that we had dominated for such long periods of time. I suspect that when we meet the Clarets in our final league game of the season, we are going to be facing a side with a serious score to be settled.

For Bury, big congratulations must go to all of the girls involved. It was a really hard fought victory today and the team showed real spirit to come back in extra time. I don’t think there was any debate from the sidelines as to who our star player was for the match--Sasha was simply immense between the sticks. The performance she put in during the first half alone gave her team mates the platform to go on and win the game. Throughout the Bury side, the work rate of all of the girls was faultless. I thought Kiera in particular put in a terrific shift trying to nullify the threat from their tricky number 10.

Well done Girls--we are all really proud of you.

Bury Squad: Sasha, Kiera, Elana, Siana, Sophie T (Captain), Jodie, Eloise, Charlotte & Courteney.

Final Score: Bury Girls & Ladies FC 3   Burnley Girls & Ladies FC 2

10/01/11         Bury Girls & Ladies FC v Hesketh Colts Girls FC

After a lengthy six week enforced break due to the Arctic weather conditions and the Christmas holidays, Bury Girls resumed their league campaign this weekend with the visit of Hesketh Colts.

Much respect again must be extended to our resident groundskeepers-in-waiting (Graeme and Mark), as the Phillips Park pitch was in great condition for today’s match. Probably a good job really, seeing that Eilish is starting to get suspicious of the increasingly prolonged pitch inspections / tactics meetings that the coaching gurus have been calling for recent weekends. 

For today’s match, we were missing a triumvirate of key players and a few of our team were called on to play in unfamiliar positions or pairings. However, in a fast, exciting start to the match, Bury Girls appeared to be quicker to settle and forced a succession of dangerous corners before Hesketh had even managed to cross into our half. After four minutes, Eloise broke free from the halfway line and beat a couple of players on the left touchline, before hitting a shot that only just missed the Colts’ cross bar by a couple of inches.

However, Hesketh Colts came very close to breaking the deadlock themselves with their first proper attack in the sixth minute. Following a Bury corner from the right hand flank, the Colts snatched back possession and hit Bury with a well worked counterattack through the centre. Fortunately, Courteney made an excellent blocking save to deny the Colts’ forward when she was clear through on the Bury goal.

This chance seemed to noticeably rally the visitors into action and after Bury’s confident start, the Seasiders started to take firm control of the game. I don’t know whether it was down to the long layoff (and all of the mince pies and selection boxes that had been consumed) or the unfamiliar team shape, but Bury suddenly started to struggle to keep hold of the ball or manage to mount attacks with any great numbers. More worryingly, when we did get players up to support the attackers, we weren’t tracking back quickly enough when we lost the ball. As a result, it was the Bury goal that seemed under the most imminent threat. Fortunately, Courteney was in fine form and produced a string of brave stops to keep out the Colts.

Alas, we couldn’t keep riding our luck and on twelve minutes, Hesketh took a well deserved lead when, following a lovely, well worked move, the ball was rifled past the helpless Courteney into the corner of the Bury goal. The rest of the half followed in the same manner, with lots of huff and puff from Bury Girls, but little end product. The Colts’ keeper was excellent throughout and dealt easily with everything we threw at her.

In the final minute of the half, things could have got a whole lot worse had it not been for a terrific save from Courteney that kept us in the match. With the score still at 1 -0 at the break, it gave Graeme and Mark a chance to make a few changes to try and get us back into the match.

For the second half, the two Sophies slotted into midfield, whilst Siana had a rare run out up front. The changes seemed to make an immediate impact and Sophie R was unlucky to see a shot blocked by the keeper’s legs, following a wonderful flowing move that we could have only dreamt of in the first period. A minute later, the Colts’ keeper produced another fine stop to deny Siana, following a precise through ball from Eloise.

Bury continued to ratchet up the pressure and on 23 minutes, Eloise was first to a clearance from the keeper, from where she charged past two defenders, before thumping home an unstoppable shot to even the scores up.

For the first time in the match, Bury were threatening to score with every attack. With Siana playing wide on the right and Eloise on the left, they were terrorising the Colts’ defence with their pace and silky skills.

In the 27^th minute, Siana went on a brilliant rampaging run down the right touchline, before taking a long range pot shot from the edge of the box. Her lofted effort curled magnificently over the keeper, but struck the right hand goal post before bouncing away into touch.

With time fast running out and Bury continuing to produce some excellent scoring chances, we won a corner on the right. Sophie T took the kick and through a packed penalty area, the ball ended up at Eloise’s feet. Before Eloise could get away her shot, she was flattened by the desperate Colts’ keeper, but her clearance landed straight at the feet of Siana, who coolly fired home a much deserved goal for her and Bury.

In the remaining minutes, both Eloise and Sophie T. came close to adding to the lead, but after a long four minutes of injury time (it’s amazing how much time is lost at this level tying laces!!), the referee blew up to end another thrilling and eventful match for Bury Girls.

A very big thank you must go to the players, coaches and parents from Hesketh Colts for braving the elements and providing such tough opposition, after the long journey from Southport to play the game. In a match that was so competitive and finely balanced, it was great to see it played out in the right spirit by both sides.

Whilst today saw another great comeback from our girls, it would be nice if, once in a while, they didn’t always want to do it the hard way. I think the girls found it really hard to get back into their stride once they had lost the initiative in the first half, but all involved deserve much praise for their performance after the break. Siana in particular caught the eye with her excellent attacking runs and her all-round team work richly deserved the reward of scoring the winning goal.

Courteney deserves special praise for the colossal display she put in between the sticks. The tremendous save she made just before half time was probably in hindsight the turning point of the whole match for us. It might not be Courteney’s position of choice, but today her team mates owe her big time for her first half saves alone.

Bury Girls & Ladies FC 2 Hesketh Colts Girls FC 1

Bury Squad: Courteney, Erin, Nicole, Kiera, Charlotte (Captain), Amy, Eloise, Sophie T,  Sophie R & Siana.

 

21/11/10           Bury Girls & Ladies FC vs. Preston North End WFC

After the “great flood” that put paid to our fixture at Burnley last weekend, it was a crisp and chilly Phillips Park that welcomed the visit of Preston North End for today’s league fixture. Despite the recent spell of bad weather, Mark and Graeme must be commended for all of the hard work they have put in to keep our pitch in such fine fettle.

For today’s fixture, we welcomed back the multi-talented Sasha into the squad as a midfielder, with captain for the day being Sophie R. looking to continue her impressive form between the sticks. Before a ball could be kicked, the game looked destined to descend into farce as it became apparent that under their training tops, both teams were wearing identical coloured shirts and shorts. Fortunately for all involved, Graeme had brought along his bright orange bibs so for today’s match, Bury Girls were decked out a la the Dutch national team.

Whether this last minute kit change had any tangible effect on our girl’s ability to play as a team is debatable, but much to Mark’s chagrin, the girls made a pretty sloppy start and struggled to match PNE’s early endeavours.

With five minutes played, a Preston player broke down the left flank. She cut in down the goal line and pulled the ball back at an acute angle to an unmarked colleague who slammed home the opener past a helpless Sophie. Whilst there was a strong suggestion from the sidelines that the ball had crossed the goal line prior to the cross being made, full marks must go to the Preston girls for continuing to play on and not waiting for the whistle to halt play.

A minute later, the situation got a whole lot worse. With Bury yet to properly regroup after the opener, PNE forced a corner on the right hand side. The resulting cross flashed dangerously across the face of the Bury goal, before Nicole managed to make a firm clearance. Unfortunately, the ball ricocheted straight back off a PNE forward and flew past a completely wrong footed Sophie into the back of the Bury goals. Six minutes gone, 2 – 0 down and a mountain to climb.

However, rather than feeling sorry for themselves, Bury Girls finally lifted their game and started to wrench back control of the match from Preston. Suddenly all of the attacking threat was coming from our girls in orange. After a promising five minute spell, it was Bury who looked the more likely team to score with every attack. In the 11^th minute, Sasha played the ball through to Eloise who charged through the heart of the PNE defence before slotting the ball clinically past the PNE keeper.

Bury continued to ramp up the pressure and three minutes later, Jodie came very close to squaring the game as her snap shot flew just wide of the post. For the rest of the half, Bury Girls were very much in the ascendency with PNE desperately holding on courtesy of some frantic last gasp blocks.

I’m sure that Preston were hoping that the break would take the wind out of Bury’s sails, but with Erin and Charlotte coming on for the second half, we picked up where we had left off.

The warning bells for Preston’s girls must have been ringing loudly when, within a minute of the restart, Eloise picked the pocket of a Preston midfielder and played a lovely through ball for Jodie to run onto. Jodie’s rampaging run left the defenders in her wake, but on this occasion, she was thwarted by a brave block from the Preston keeper.

A minute later, Erin intercepted a dangerous PNE move and fired the ball up to Sophie T on the edge of the box. Sophie held off a defender and managed to thread it through to Jodie, who coolly slotted the ball past the PNE keeper to give us a well deserved equaliser.

With equilibrium now restored Bury continued to push hard for a winner. In a very entertaining and competitive second half, Bury continued to dominate and came very close to snatching the lead a number of times. However, with time running out, the game seemed destined to be heading for a hard fought draw.

Throughout the second half, Bury’s defenders had coped very well with snuffing out Preston’s attacking threat, but the visitors continued to plug away the whole time. Indeed, PNE almost stole an unlikely victory in the final minute when a goal mouth scramble at the Bury end finished with the ball fortuitously coming back off the inside of our right hand post into the hands of a very relieved Sophie R.

This stroke of luck seemed to galvanise Bury’s resolve for one final push. Sophie R made a long clearance up towards Jodie on the half way line. A Preston defender may have got to the ball first, but with Jodie and Eloise tearing in to make the challenge, she lost control of the ball. Jodie grateful picked up the spoils and broke away leaving the PNE defence in her wake before smashing the ball home to clinch Bury a fantastic victory.

A thought must go out to Preston who gave their all and must feel gutted to lose with practically the last kick of the game. They gave us a very hard contest and showed some real bottle to lift their game back up, after we had cancelled out their two goal lead.

As for Bury Girls, they can take real pride from their performance today. In a game where they could so very easily have gone into their shells after the terrible start, they managed to summon up great reserves of courage and ability to grab a memorable victory from the jaws of defeat. For the amount of effort they put in alone, I think they were well worth the points on the day.

It was a great all round team performance today with every player worthy of praise. I was particularly impressed by Erin’s second half performance. I know she had to endure a baptism of fire on her debut at Academy, but she seems to have grown from the experience. In addition to her key role in setting up our equaliser, I can’t recall her flinching from making any midfield challenges and her passing throughout was also crisp and accurate in a particularly frenetic area of the pitch.

I think the greatest testimony of how well the Girls played today was written all over the face of the (let’s face it!!) normally grumpy Mark. As the final whistle sounded, he let his guard down and was sporting the largest Cheshire Cat grin I have ever seen.

Bury Girls & Ladies FC 3   Preston North End LFC 2

Bury Squad: Sophie R (Captain), Siana, Nicole, Sasha, Sophie T, Jodie, Eloise, Erin & Charlotte.

 

07/11/10    Bury Girls & Ladies FC    v        TMS Girls FC

With the Sunday newspapers’ sports sections still full of the heroics of FC United and the likes in the F.A. Cup 1^st Round, it was highly appropriate that the excitement of cup football came to Phillips Park for the quarter final of the league cup.

Today, we welcomed back T.M.S. Girls, who recently inflicted our first defeat of the season when they were worthy 1 – 0 winners in a tight low scoring contest at the same venue. Fortunately for us, and unlike our earlier meeting, the touchlines were alive with the dulcet tones of Mark and his pantomime-villain persona. Also missing from the previous league encounter had been Eloise and Elana, who now featured in a very strong Bury squad that had been selected for this game.

T.M.S. started the game with great confidence and purpose with their impressive number 9 once more starting to cause our defenders headaches with her intelligent running and great link up play. Amy and Kiera, our starting defenders, would have to be on top form if we were to triumph today.

Bury however were equally keen to impress with Eloise and Jodie causing the T.M.S. backline no end of problems with their constant movement and speed on the ball. After a lively opening to the match, our first chance came on four minutes when Eloise chanced a long range shot that had the T.M.S. keeper scurrying to her right to keep the ball out. A minute later, Eloise crossed the ball from the left hand flank into the onrushing Sophie T, but she could not get the shot away cleanly this time.

It was certainly not all one way traffic though and Sasha in our goals then produced a brilliant block with her knees to deny T.M.S.’s tricky number 9. As the half progressed, the play was becoming increasingly fast and furious with both teams powering into every challenge. The opening goal would be vital, especially given that both keepers starting today had made our league’s representative squad and would not be easy to beat.

We had to wait until the 14th minute for the breakthrough, but when it came, it was something special. Elana broke up a T.M.S. move in the middle and threaded the ball out to Sophie T on the left wing. Sophie pulled the ball back to Eloise on the edge of the penalty box, who turned between two defenders and charged through on the goal. With the T.M.S. keeper coming out to narrow the angle, Eloise unleashed an unstoppable drive into the bottom corner of the T.M.S. net.

Any thoughts of complacency on the Bury side quickly evaporated a couple of minutes later when T.M.S.’s number 9 broke free and was one on one with Sasha, but thankfully her shot flew over the goal.

Half time arrived with Bury Girls fully deserving of their one goal lead. In what is fast becoming a half time ritual, the Rowlands sisters entered the fray with Sophie R. replacing Sasha between the sticks.

The second half continued where the first had left off with both forward lines enjoying promising spells of play, but just failing to deliver that final killer touch. One real positive for Bury Girls was that any chances T.M.S. did carve out were well dealt with by the ever improving Sophie R. She is fast turning into a great keeper and the air of confidence that she exudes seems to rub off on the defenders in front of her.

For the final ten minutes, Sasha came back on as a forward and her close ball control provided the T.M.S. defence with yet another headache to deal with. In the 36^th minute, Sasha made a driving run into the T.M.S. penalty area, but was caught on the leg by a T.M.S. defender. The referee immediately blew up for a penalty and whilst I do think he called it right, it was the sort of unintentional foul that does get overlooked on occasion at this level of football.

With our normal penalty taker (Jodie) taking a well deserved breather off the pitch, the task of taking the spot kick fell to Eloise. Although the T.M.S. keeper bravely managed to get a hand to Eloise’s strike, it had been smashed home with such force that there was no chance of keeping the ball out.

Full marks to T.M.S. because they didn’t let the disappointment of the penalty affect their game and they came back at us with renewed vigour from the restart. There had been a few stoppages in the second half, so it was no surprise when the ref informed us that he had added four minutes of injury time.

Still should be no problem - all that was needed now was to play out time and keep our concentration levels up. Alas, in the 2^nd minute of added time, Bury Girls failed to properly put the ball out of play for a corner. A T.M.S. player nipped in to save the ball on the goal line and pulled it back into the middle where it was forced home past a desperate Sophie R.

Fortunately, with the exception of a last gasp corner kick that we successfully defended, the remaining time passed without any more drama to fray the nerves of the watching parents, players and friends.

Well done Girls!! It might have been tough going at times today, but over the course of the match, you deserved the win. In the meantime, we can start to look forward to another Semi-Final game in the New Year and dare to dream of back to back final appearances.

Final Score:    Bury Girls & Ladies FC 2  TMS Girls 1

Bury Squad: Sasha, Amy, Kiera, Sophie T (Captain), Siana, Jodie, Eloise, Elana, Sophie R & Charlotte.

 

31/10/10        Bury Girls & Ladies FC    v    Mill Hill Girls FC

During our first season of competitive football, the Under 10s managed to chalk up positive results against all bar one of our opponents. The notable exception being Mill Hill Girls FC, who were, quite frankly, (in my personal opinion) head and shoulders above any other team we faced in the league. Fortunately for us, the Mill Hill team of last season have now moved up into Under 11s football, but if results thus far are anything to go by, the new crop of Mill Hill girls seem to be carrying on where their predecessors left off.

After our spectacular start to this season’s league campaign, our form has been a bit “hit and miss” over the past few weeks. Therefore not knowing which Bury U10s side would turn up, I was beginning to fear the worse for the visit of the high flying Blackburners to Phillips Park.

Graeme had elected to field our most experienced side for today’s game, with Nicole returning to the fold as captain. With all eight of our cup finalists selected, I’m sure I wasn’t alone in hoping that the girls could exact some sort of revenge for the disappointment they suffered at the North Valley League Cup Final in Lytham a few months ago.

With the words of Graeme and Mark still ringing in their ears, Bury set about getting to grips with our tricky visitors. In a very tight and competitive opening phase of the match, it was clear that the girls would have to work very hard to snuff out the Mill Hill threat. Mill Hill’s number 8 quickly caught the eye in a floating playmaker role. Fortunately, between Sophie and Kiera, her influence on the game was squashed as Bury matched Mill Hill blow for blow.

In a highly combative opening, both teams struggled to carve out any chances. Then, with six minutes on the clock, and from out of nothing, Mill Hill managed to keep an over hit pass in play. The ball was crisply crossed back from the bye line to the edge of the six yard box, where a Mill Hill player fired it home past a static Bury defence.

Thankfully, Bury weren’t for throwing in the towel yet. Within a minute of going behind, Courteney demonstrated some silky skills of her own to hold off the defenders and force our first corner of the game. As the game started to open up, both Jodie and Eloise began to enjoy some success down the right wing.  On 11 minutes, Mill Hill came close to doubling their lead, but the chance was bravely smothered by Sasha at the feet of the onrushing attackers. This was to be the first of many excellent saves that Sasha made over the match.

In a tactical switch, Elana came on for Courteney and provided some much needed extra strength in the midfield, allowing Jodie to exploit her speed on the flanks. The two teams fought out a very entertaining first half that was real end to end stuff with Bury Girls more than holding their own against the visitors. At 1 – 0, it was going to be anybody’s game in the second half.

After the break, the match continued at the same break-neck speed with Bury starting to ramp up the pressure on the Mill Hill goal. In the 23^rd minute, Elana won the ball on the half way line and made a great run, before laying the ball off to Jodie, who in turn switched the play to Eloise, whose excellent snap shot flew narrowly wide of the left hand upright. Two minutes later, Sophie was denied when her crisp shot from the edge of the box was well saved by the unflappable Mill Hill keeper.

It was not all one-way traffic though and Mill Hill continued to create chances to extend their lead. On various occasions, we had Sasha to thank for making vital interceptions to potentially very dangerous through balls.  One of the most pleasing aspects of our play was the work rate that the team demonstrated throughout the whole game. It was really great to see the determination of the Bury Girls chasing down every loose ball.  This attitude was best summed up by our captain, Nicole, who must have tracked back the length of the pitch to win back possession of a ball she had originally lost in the Mill Hill half.

Approaching the final five minutes, it was too close to call. Then, in an unfortunate incident, a goal kick from Sasha was miscued and landed at the feet of a Mill Hill player. Despite being just short of the centre circle, she showed great technique and skill to fire the ball back first time past the stranded Sasha into the back of the Bury goal.

Conceding in such a manner seemed to rock our girls’ concentration and within a minute, we were caught out on the left hand flank. Sasha brilliantly blocked the initial shot, but the rebound was bundled home to give the visitors a harsh 3 -0 lead.

Although Bury rallied in the final few minutes, the game had been stolen away from our grasp in a cruel two minute period. It could have been even worse had Sasha not produced a blinding save to push the ball onto the crossbar in the final minute.

What can you say at the end of this? Utmost respect must go to our opponents who were probably the best team we have faced this year. On this form, I have no doubt they will be challenging for the league at the end of the season.

Whereas after recent defeats the manner of our play has been the biggest disappointment, today I thought the girls gave everything and, but for the rub of the green, deserved to take something out of this match. There is no disgrace losing to such a good team, especially when the girls have all put in the hard yards. On most days, and against most opponents, our work rate and play would have been rewarded with a positive result. I am sure the rest of the parents and coaches would echo my sentiments when I say I was very proud of the girls’ attitude today. Our revenge against Mill Hill may have to wait until next time, but on the strength of today, our chance will come.

Final Score:     Bury Girls & Ladies FC 0    Mill Hill Girls FC 3

Bury Squad: Sasha, Nicole (Captain), Kiera, Sophie T, Jodie, Courteney, Eloise, Amy & Elana

 

24/10/10        Town Green Girls FC    v    Bury Girls & Ladies FC

After our recent string of bad results, we were all hoping that a trip out to the countryside to face Town Green Girls would be just the tonic. Early omens were good as en route we passed the intriguingly named “Alty’s Lane”. Could today be the day that Courteney managed to convert all that hard work into goals on the final score sheet?  Graeme (aka Mr Tinker Man) once more shuffled his pack for this game. Today saw the welcome return of Sophie R in goals with “little sister” Charlotte coming back into the defence. The ever dependable Siana picked up the captain’s armband with Courteney having another run out up front with Jodie.

Straight from the kick off, Bury Girls imposed their dominance on the match by being first to every tackle and not allowing the Town Green players any time on the ball. It is no coincidence that our best results have all come in games where we have seized the initiative straight from the kick off.  In an action packed opening, Bury created all of the running and with three minutes gone, Courteney had a good chance to open the scoring. She was unfortunate to see her shot being charged down but it fell to Jodie who clinically despatched the rebound into the back of the TG goal.  A few minutes later, the ball found Courteney unmarked and she was through one on one with the TG goalie. Few would have predicted the amount of venom she put into the shot as she smashed it confidently in the top cormer to make it 2 – 0 to Bury.  Still the chances came. On ten minutes, Jodie delivered a pin point cross to the feet of Courteney whose first time shot screwed just wide of the post. As Bury pressed forward en masse, we almost fell foul to a TG sucker-punch. A quick counter attack found us on the sticky end of 4 attackers v 2 defenders. Fortunately for us, the final shot was scuffed wide but it provided the girls with a timely reminder that Town Green were far from being any pushovers.  In the 12^th minute, Sophie T was very unlucky not to add to the score when she hit an excellent free kick from the left hand side of the box that flew inches past the far post.  With all of the Bury pressure, it was only a matter of time before Jodie bagged her second, and Bury’s third, goal. Jodie collected the ball in the box and was allowed time to turn and coolly fire home past the Town Green goalie. 15 minutes gone and

3 – 0 to Bury Girls.

Half time arrived and a swaggering Bury Girls were well worth their three goal lead. Any thoughts that Town Green may have had of us easing up on them after the break evaporated when Courteney & Sophie T. made way for Eloise & Sasha. who were both eager to get in on the goal scoring act.  Within a minute of the restart, Eloise had added a fourth goal when she hit a tremendous drive across the face of the goal into the back of the net.  Not wanting to be outdone, Sasha then had a great effort that the goalie brilliantly turned onto the crossbar. I’ve lost count of the number of times Sasha has been foiled by the woodwork this year, but I’m confident her luck has got to change one of these games.  When our fifth goal did come in the 22^nd minute, it did have a degree of good fortune about it. Eloise’s initial shot was spilled by the goalie and in the confusing melee of Eloise, the keeper and her defenders trying to get to the ball first, it somehow ended up in the back of the Town Green nets. I think I must declare a vested interest here as to who actually provided the final touch--given Eloise is on £1 a goal and 50p for every assist. Obviously my own financially prudent preference was for calling it as an own goal, but this has been over-ruled by our own Dubious Goals Committee (Mark and Graeme) who have credited it to Eloise. I think the extra 50p was well worth it just to highlight the benefits of chasing down seemingly lost causes.  Unfortunately, shortly after the goal, Sasha had to leave the pitch after bravely blocking a Town Green effort with her stomach....ouch!! However with our own pocket dynamo (Courteney) keen to impress, there would be little respite for the TG defence. On the half hour, Courteney was very unlucky not to grab a second when a fine solo run ended with her rasping shot being pushed away by the keeper.

Despite the emphatic score line, Town Green must be praised for their effort and determination throughout the game. Their number 5 in particular impressed me all match with her strength and skill on the ball. It was therefore not surprising when she grabbed a late consolation goal courtesy of a wonderful strike.

After our recent goal drought, it was great to see our forwards back in the goals. Jodie put in another excellent display both in front of goal and with her over the top goal celebrations. Courteney had a great game up front and can count herself very unlucky not to chalk up a few more goals (and pounds off her Dad) on the day.

However, I think the biggest influence on the game came from Sophie T who had a magnificent match in midfield. She was definitely the bane of the overstretched Town Green side today with her hard tackling and surging runs.

Once again, many thanks must go to our hosts for the warm welcome we received and I’m sure Town Green Girls will go from strength to strength as they get more experience under their belts.

Final Score   Town Green Girls FC 1  Bury Girls & Ladies FC 5

Bury Squad: Sophie R, Charlotte, Kiera, Sophie T, Siana (Captain), Jodie, Courteney, Eloise & Sasha

 

17/10/10        Academy Juniors FC    v        Bury Girls & Ladies FC

After eighteen months of travelling to the far-flung reaches of Lancashire to watch the girls play, it made a pleasant change to finally play an away fixture that you could legitimately deem as being a local derby.  After a heavy overnight frost in Bury, it was a relief to find the Academy pitch in such perfect condition. Although in fairness the first thing that struck me was how small the pitch looked in comparison to our own Phillips Park.

Today’s team was skippered by Courteney, who also had the unenviable task of filling Sasha’s large goalkeeping “gloves” for this match. The other notable team change was the debut of Erin who has been chomping at the bit for a proper league game since joining the squad and waiting for her registration papers to come through.

In our last two matches, we have been guilty of starting slowly and losing any attacking impetus against more committed opponents. However today we did seem to have learnt our lessons and actually made quite a promising start to the match. Within the first couple of minutes, Eloise managed to unleash a snap shot that the home goalie nervously spilled to concede a corner. We then proceeded to pin Academy back winning three corners on the bounce before the home team stole back possession. From this, Academy staged a pacey counterattack which culminated with a powerfully hit shot flying just wide of Courteney’s left hand upright. It was to prove to be a portent of what was to come.

As Academy started to pick up their game, Bury seemed to be experiencing problems keeping to their positions on the smaller pitch. With five minutes gone, an Academy player picked up the ball in midfield and was allowed time to turn and run at the heart of the Bury defence. After a Messi-esque display of dribbling, she coolly fired the ball into the corner of the Bury goal.

As the half progressed, Bury seemed to lose their way as the excellent Academy defence snuffed out any offensive threats we posed. The lack of available width on the pitch seemed to cause a major problem for our girls as they struggled to compete in a congested midfield battle. Despite all this and as we entered first half injury time, I was still confident that we might find a way back into the game after the break. Then, with seconds remaining on the clock, the home team chanced a long range effort that Courteney initially blocked with her outstretched leg but unfortunately, the ball then spun back agonisingly over the goal line.

In the space of a few seconds, a potentially difficult half time pep talk became very near impossible for Graeme and Mark as the girls came off visibly deflated by the late strike.

After the break, Bury made a brave fist of getting back into the game and forced a string of early corners from speculative shots. However, we created very little in the way of clear cut scoring chances against a very well drilled Academy side. Defensively, we seemed to cope with Academy’s threat a lot better, but again we struggled to keep the ball and link up play between zones.

The final nail in the coffin came in a disastrous 30^th minute, when Bury lost both Eloise and Kiera to knocks in quick succession before Academy capitalised on the enforced changes by scoring an excellent solo goal that gave Courteney no chance. Bury did continue to keep pushing until the final whistle but the great comeback was never to be today.

We can have few complaints and were fairly beaten by a better side on the day. Whilst the score line didn’t flatter Academy Juniors, I do honestly believe that if we had played to our own true potential, the game could have been there for the taking.

On a difficult day, there were some positives to be reported on. I thought Elena put in a great hard working display throughout the match and Jodie’s tireless running must also be applauded. Whilst I’m sure the result wasn’t what Erin had hoped for in her debut, she did have some excellent moments to look back on (and brought plenty of supporters with her!) and I’m sure she will grow in confidence with a few more games under her belt.

In conclusion, the mark of a good team is how well they bounce back from a bad result. There’s no point being too down hearted about today as we all know you can play a lot “better than this” (© Mark Edwards). We just need to learn from the experience and listen to our coaches carefully at training to try and improve our play.

Bury Squad: Courteney (Captain), Sophie T, Amy, Tash, Elena, Eloise, Jodie, Erin, Kiera

Final Result:  Academy Juniors FC 3   Bury Girls & Ladies FC 0

 

10/10/10       Bury Girls & Ladies FC      v      T.M.S Girls FC

For the first time this season, we were treated to near perfect playing conditions as we welcomed our latest Merseyside visitors, TMS to “fortress” Phillips Park. The sunshine may have prompted a great turnout from family, friends and rested players but it was to be a lot more subdued pitch side than normal, due to the temporary absence of our own human fog horn (Mark) on the touchline. He may well have delivered a rallying call to the girls prior to the kick off by mobile phone but without the wild gesticulations, it’s not quite the same.

After our disappointing result at Oswaldtwistle, it was great to welcome back into the team our on-form striker Jodie. Other notable changes for this week saw our defensive stalwart Nicole moving into midfield and Kiera continuing in the attacking role she impressed in at Ossy.

My first impressions of TMS were of a very hard working and committed side that were very quick to track back into defence. You couldn’t fault their work rate one bit and with their number nine being particularly effective upfront, holding the ball up for her team mates to join in the attacks, they proved to be formidable foes. In comparison, Bury struggled to get enough players forward to support Kiera and Jodie in attack and our offensive threat failed to really fire in a tough first half battle. It was not until the 8^th minute that Bury forced their first real chance. Keira took a wicked free kick from the edge of the TMS box that was well saved by the stretching keeper.

Despite all of TMS’s early pressure, Bury’s defence managed to keep the door firmly shut at the back. Then just when I was thinking that we were starting to get on top of the contest, we fell foul to a terrible defensive mix-up that presented the visitors with a simple chance to break the deadlock. Eleven minutes gone –1 nil to TMS.

In a bizarre display of confidence in our girl’s abilities to bounce back, Graeme elected to play the next 5 minutes with only 6 players on the pitch. In all fairness, it did take a while for anyone else to work out why we were suddenly being overrun in defence!! It later transpired that one of our team had had to come off the pitch with no notice to get an injury looked at and then there was no break in play to allow a substitute to get on the pitch.  Equality in numbers restored and Bury started a brave fight back. On seventeen minutes, Kiera broke through and unleashed an excellent shot that was palmed out by the TMS keeper. However, within a minute, TMS almost hit us on the counter attack and we had Sasha to thank for making a tremendous save that she had no rights to keep out.

Half time arrived and you would have to say TMS were well worth the 1 – 0 lead. In fairness, we could count ourselves lucky to be still in the game after such an impressive first half performance by the visitors.

For the restart, Sasha moved into midfield with Sophie R taking over between the sticks. Thankfully, whatever Graeme had said worked, and it was a much better second half display with Bury finally matching the Merseysiders player for player.  Defensively, we also coped with the TMS threat a lot better and on the few occasions that Sophie R was called into action, she dealt with everything that came her way very comfortably. As Bury started to lift their game, chances started to appear. On 31 minutes, Sasha and Kiera produced a lovely passing move which culminated in a great shot from Kiera that just flew past the right hand post.

In the closing minutes, Sasha, Jodie and Kiera all went close to grabbing an equaliser. Unfortunately today the all-important clinical finish just seemed to keep eluding our forwards. In fairness, I think we were probably beaten by a better team on the day.  I know it’s disappointing to lose our first game this season, but congratulations must go to TMS who put in such a great performance to thwart all of our efforts.

I would however draw some consolation from how well the girls bounced back after the break. Remember the only goal we actually conceded was the result of an unfortunate blunder at the back.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming cup match between the sides. I’m sure it will be another close encounter but with our own Mr Motivator (and Substitute monitor!!) back in the fray, who knows!!

A particular big thanks to Darren Rowlands and Mark Lynchey who stood in at very short notice to referee one half of the match each and put in admirable referring displays whilst doing so.

Bury Squad:       Sasha (Captain), Sophie T, Amy, Sophie R, Nicole, Jodie, Kiera, Charlotte, Siana & Tash

Final Score: Bury Girls & Ladies FC 0 v T.M.S Girls FC. 1

 

26/09/10    Oswaldtwistle St Marys     v        Bury Girls & Ladies FC

Bury Girls took their impressive 100% winning record on the road this week to our old friends in Oswaldtwistle. As those of you who have made the trek to Ossy before will testify, it is normally freezing cold and windswept on the Harvey Street pitches. However in comparison to the monsoon conditions we have endured in our last two home matches, it was a positively sundrenched Ossy that staged the meeting of these two old adversaries.

Although the St Mary’s Under 10’s team is essentially a new side this season, they continue in the fine footballing tradition of the team against which we had many close games last season.

Our leading goal scorer Jodie had been rested in Bury for this match and due to the referee dropping out at late notice, a change in the Bury dugout was also deemed necessary. With Graeme stepping into the refereeing breach and unable (on sporting and fair play grounds) to coach from the centre at the same time, the job of coaxing the girls from the sidelines fell firmly on Mark’s shoulders.

As with the Marina Sands game, we made quite a pedestrian start and found ourselves unable to dictate our passing game on the match. In a game where defences were to be proved to be king, the Bury Girls struggled to break down a very well organised and deep laying Ossy defensive line. Our forward line became increasingly isolated and as the half progressed, the best chances we created were quickly snuffed out as the Ossy team tracked back in numbers.

Whilst the Bury Girls managed to effectively restrict Ossy to a few half chances, we did struggle at times to retain possession when clearing our lines. Oswaldtwistle themselves had a wonderful secret weapon at their disposal, in the girl that took their corners. On four occasions, she swept over excellently delivered corner kicks that caused the Bury defenders no ends of problems. Her deliveries were by far the best I have seen at this level and definitely something for the Bury Girls to aspire to.

Courteney and Eloise continued to plug away up front and on fourteen minutes, it looked as if all of the hard running would pay off as Eloise broke free in the middle with Courteney available to her side. Alas, the great gods of football were having none of that and chose that moment to send another ball into the fray from the outfield, which Courteney started to dribble with. For a brief second, confusion reigned and even though Eloise managed to unleash a great shot, one couldn’t help but think it wasn’t going to be our day.

Whilst the endeavour was there from everyone, we did tend to switch off from time to time and never really took control of the game. It all seemed to be getting too much for poor old Mark on the sidelines, he was heard to say “It’s like being on a beach!!” Quite what he meant is anybody’s guess.

Half time arrived and with it came our customary tactical changes. Sasha passed over her goalie gloves to Sophie T, the sisters changed places (Sophie R. replacing Charlotte), and Siana came on for Eloise with captain Kiera moving up into a more advanced position.

Fortunately the changes seemed to do the trick again and at long last, we started to move the ball around a bit, creating chances on the flanks. Within minutes of the restart, Courteney laid off a great ball to Kiera, who forced the ball across the face of the goal for Sophie R to ram home her first goal for Bury.

For the next ten minutes, Bury took a firm grip of the game but despite a few excellent moves, the decisive second goal wasn’t for coming. Sasha came very close with a lofted hook that came back off the cross bar but still any stroke of good fortune failed to materialise.

Unfortunately for Bury, as we reached the midway point of the 2^nd half, Sophie T was “deceived” by a long range shot that ended up in the back of the Bury goal.

In an effort to regain the imitative, Mark brought on Eloise for Courteney but no sooner had the change been made, than our playmaker Sasha had to go off with an injury. In an entertaining final few minutes, both sides came close to stealing the points as the play became increasing stretched.

However in a final petulant display of unbiased refereeing, Graeme not only allowed a paltry 2 minutes of injury time, but even demonstrated his neutrality by blowing up just as Bury had won a potentially match-winning corner. Come back Stuart Attwell-- all is forgiven!!

On reflection, I think 1-1 was a fair result for a game where neither team truly dominated the match. I also think that whilst this has proved to be our toughest fixture to date, we still managed to come away from Ossy with our unbeaten record intact. I’m sure quite a few other teams will come unstuck against this well-drilled Oswaldtwistle team.

On an individual level - Sasha turned in another impressive performance both in and out of goal, it’s just a pity she picked up the knock when she did. Kiera also put on a fine display when she started running at the Ossy defence. Finally, a special mention must go to Charlotte. Whilst her sister may have rightfully gained all of the plaudits for her great goal, I was very impressed by all of the hard work and tracking back that Charlotte did in a very combative first half appearance.

Today was by no means the best performance the Girls have turned in, but as long as the girls learn the lessons from the day and work hard with Mark and Graeme at training, I’m sure they will bounce back with a vengeance for our next fixture against Mill Hill.

It just shows how far this team has progressed in such a short period of time that we are feeling disappointed with the draw. Remember--we are currently unbeaten and in second place in the table!!

Bury Squad: Sasha, Kiera (Captain), Amy, Charlotte, Sophie T, Courteney, Eloise, Siana and Sophie R.

Final Score: Oswaldtwistle St Mary’s Girls 1 v Bury Girls & Ladies FC 1

 

19/09/10     Bury Girls & Ladies FC v Marina Sands Girls FC

Parent Match Report by Paul Douglas

Whilst the rest of the footballing world was building up to the clash of the titans at Old Trafford  later this afternoon, those of us “in the know” were eagerly awaiting our own mini version of the Greater Manchester vs. Merseyside battle “royale” at Phillips Park.

Going into this round of games, the two sides had made vastly differing starts to the season with a confident Bury side aiming to make it three on the spin, whilst Marina Sands were still looking to register their first points of the season.

Once more, playing conditions were “less than ideal” as the match was to be played out in incessant heavy rain showers. Fortunately, the Phillips Park pitch has held up well despite all of the recent rain.

Any thoughts of a rampant Bury team steamrolling over Marina were quickly dispensed with as the Merseysiders settled far quicker and appeared to be more up for the game than the Bury Girls. In a pretty cagey opening period, Bury struggled to find any way through a well organised Marina side. Any chances we did produce seemed speculative at best and the Marina Sands goalie made a good solid start to the game.

It wasn’t until the 11^th minute that the vital breakthrough came. In a textbook example of a poacher’s instincts, Eloise pounced on a short goal kick and unleashed a powerful shot into the corner of the Marina goal. The goal seemed to settle our nerves and our passing game seemed to improve instantly.

For the remainder of the half, Bury took firm control of the game and started to create a string of chances as the Marina girls struggled to clear their lines. Eventually, the pressure told and Elana capped a fabulous midfield performance by firing in another one of her trademark drives from the edge of the box.

Half-time found Bury enjoying a comfortable 2-0 lead and provided an ideal opportunity for the introduction of our latest squad debutante, Tash, into midfield.

As with the previous two matches this season, Bury came out of the traps running after the break. Within a minute of the restart, Eloise had a great chance to extend the lead but saw a fine shot come back off the post. Fortunately, the rebound landed at the feet of Jodie who fired home her 5^th goal of the season with great aplomb. 

Throughout the match, Jodie’s work rate was excellent. She must have covered every inch of grass on the pitch including one memorable solo run when she seemed to dribble past the whole Marina team “two times over” before managing to get a shot away.

In progressively more difficult playing conditions, Bury continued to create some good chances but it was not until the 34^th Minute that Amy continued her “goal-a-game” scoring streak when she fired in the fourth goal after some fine work in the area by Kiera.

With just a couple of minutes left on the clock, Marina Sands scored an excellently struck consolation goal that went some way to rewarding all of their hard work and effort in the game.

Whilst today’s team performance may not have been as slick as our previous matches, we did achieve a fine win against a Marina Sands side that showed real signs of finding their feet in this league. If they play with as much commitment and endeavour as they did today, I’m sure today’s goal will be the first of many to come. A very big thank you must go to all of the Marina Sands girls and supporters who made the journey over to “sunny” Bury.

On the Bury team, a special mention must go to Courteney who played the full match in goals. Whilst she had a few quiet periods in the game, she dealt admirably with everything that came her way. She could do nothing regarding the excellently-taken Marina goal.  I was particularly impressed by the quality of her goal kicking. Not only was she consistently managing to kick it into the Marina half, she also invariably found our players and gave us plenty of opportunity to counter-attack. Our newest player Tash also made an impressive debut in midfield and looked very comfortable on the ball when she was coming forward.

As you will be aware, Graeme has rotated the captaincies for each fixture this season, but what you might not have picked up on is that the captain has scored in every game. The girls seem to be relishing the role and today Amy put in a blinding second half display, despite having to take a quick rest just before half-time due to a temporary medical problem. I will be interested to see who’s selected for the “lucky” captain’s spot at Oswaldtwistle next weekend.

Bury Squad: Courteney, Kiera, Charlotte, Amy (Captain), Elana, Siana, Eloise, Sophie R, Jodie and Tash.

Final Score:    Bury Girls & Ladies FC 4 v Marina Sands Girls FC 1

 

12/09/10        Bury Girls & Ladies FC    V    Euxton Girls FC

Today saw the visit of a tenacious Euxton side to Phillips Park in a match that despite a promising weather forecast was played out in a mixture of heavy drizzle and the occasional blast of brilliant sunshine.

The weather may have been a disappointment but the performance of both teams was a joy to behold as the game see-sawed between these two well-matched clubs.

This week also saw Graeme’s wealth of available talent coming to the fore as squad rotation saw the debuts of Sophie R. and Charlotte and the welcome return of our defensive stalwart Kiera.

In a hard fought first half, chances were limited as Euxton and Bury’s midfield cancelled out each other’s offensive threat. When the break finally did come, it was in Euxton’s favour. From an attack down the right wing, Bury’s defence found themselves outnumbered and the stranded Sasha was helpless as the ball was fired in from close range.

On the balance of play, Euxton were probably worth the one goal lead, but when is football ever fair.

Within a minute of the restart, Elana won the ball by the half way line and laid it on to Eloise, who fired over a pin-point pass to Sophie T. on the edge of the Euxton area, and Sophie then lashed the ball into the Euxton goal.

The remaining few minutes of the first half saw a resurgent Bury force a succession of corners, but the Euxton defence remained resolute as Bury failed to capitalise on the pressure.

Half time saw Eloise, Kiera and Elana making way for the debutante “sisters” with Sophie R. taking over from Sasha in goals and Charlotte slotting in at the back. Again this week, the  changes had a positive effect as Bury lost no attacking impetus after the break. A couple of minutes into the half, Sasha repeated the trick of last week and played in Jodie to shoot Bury into the lead.

Euxton however took the latest setback in their stride and bounced back with a vengeance. Sophie R. was increasingly called into action as Euxton started to create a string of half decent chances. Fortunately for us, she dealt with everything that was thrown at her in a confident and assured manner. Just when I was thinking it would take something special to breach the Bury goal, Euxton scored with a wonderful lofted shot that gave the goalie no chance.

Would we settle for the draw? No way - fortune favours the brave and when Siana made way for Eloise, Graeme went for broke unleashing all three strikers to terrorise the Euxton backline.

In the remaining ten minutes, Sasha, Eloise and Jodie all had chances to restore the lead before they linked up together to create the move of the day. With only a couple of minutes left to play, Sasha picked up the ball on the right wing and played a lovely ball onto Eloise who cut in along the bye line before crossing the ball over for the onrushing Jodie to slot it into the unguarded Euxton net. A fine well worked goal to clinch a hard fought victory.

Euxton can count themselves unlucky to leave Bury empty handed, but it is to our girls’ immense credit that they managed to lift their game up after each goal they conceded. In a match where the performance of the team as a whole was so good, I am loathe to focus in on individual performances. Jodie’s latest brace of goals continue her great scoring run, but the manner in which all of the goals have come from great interplay between the forwards is particularly pleasing. I thought Siana had another great game, making a string of vital interceptions at the back as well as providing a bit of steel and guile in her second half midfield role. Charlotte also acquitted herself well on her debut against a persistent Euxton attack.

A big thank you must go out to the Euxton team for providing such a tough challenge.  Their No.7 at the back was excellent and did a wonderful job of frustrating our forwards for most of the match. I’m sure Euxton’s first points of the season will not be too far away on the strength of today’s display.

Bury Squad: Sasha, Kiera, Siana, Elana, Sophie T., Eloise, Jodie(Captain), Nicole, Charlotte and Sophie R.

Final Score: Bury Girls 3 Euxton Girls 2

 

04/09/10      Dynamo Rangers Girls FC    V        Bury Girls & Ladies FC 

The Bury Girls U10s squad kicked off the 2010/11 league campaign in rampaging form at Skelmersdale on Saturday. Despite losing the services of last season’s lynchpin Kristeen to one of our higher-age group teams, the core of the squad that had such a promising first season remains in place. When you add to this the fact that we are now competing on a level playing field age-wise and how well our new players have slotted into the team, it’s looking like being a very exciting season to come.

Bury Girls started the match with seven of the cup final team and the experience seemed to tell as Bury quickly exerted their dominance over the Rangers’ midfield. After two minutes, Jodie pulled the ball back for Eloise to smash the ball in off the cross-bar.

As the half progressed, Bury continued to make chances with Courteney being unlucky to miss out through desperate last-gasp blocks by the Rangers’ defence. However, as we pressed forward for a second goal, we were nearly underdone by lightning quick counter attacks from the excellent Rangers’ number 8. Fortunately, the ever dependable Sasha saved the day with a couple of fine saves. The all important second goal came courtesy of a long clearance from Sasha that Jodie pounced on to run through and fire past the Rangers’ keeper.

Whilst the girls had performed admirably putting everything into their individual battles, It was noticeable in the heat just how drained they appeared at the half time whistle. Fortunately, Graeme had the opportunity to make a few changes to freshen the team up. Courteney went into goals, Sasha slotted into midfield, with Siana and Elana giving Nicole and Jodie a well earned rest.

In the past, so many changes at once may have unsettled the girls, but if anything, they were even more energised after the re-start. The counter-attacking threat of the Rangers’ team seemed to evaporate as once more Bury took control of the midfield battle. Sasha in particular was outstanding in the Paul Scholes’ role playing through Eloise on a number of occasions that had the Rangers’ defence permanently on the back foot. In a wonderful ten minute period of fast flowing passing football, Bury chalked up four more goals (a second goal from Eloise, two goals for Sasha and a fine drive from debutante Elana). With “five” minutes to go, Graeme made his final changes bringing Jodie and Nicole on for the superb Sophie and Eloise.

There would be no respite for the beleaguered Rangers’ defence. As Bury pressed for more goals, the ball was half cleared to the edge of the Rangers’ area whereupon Amy (in nosebleed territory!!) unleashed an unstoppable pile driver into the back of the net.  Quite where that came from is anybody’s guess, but it is a real early contender for the goal of the season.

Shortly afterwards, Sasha and Jodie linked up with Jodie firing in her second of the match. The game then entered into what seemed like a never ending period of injury time during which the Rangers’ team chalked up two consolation goals. Whilst it’s certainly fair to say Rangers’ overall work rate and efforts were fully deserving of the goals, it’s also a shame that Courteney’s excellent second half display between the sticks should not be rewarded with a clean sheet.

What an excellent start to the season – it really is difficult to highlight out star performers when everybody played so well. From the two goalkeepers through to our forward line, everybody deserves to be applauded and the best indicator of how well we played was even “Mr Grumpy” (aka Mark) was hard pushed to find anything to complain about!!

A very big thank you must be extended to our hosts who, despite having a few players missing, gave us a very fair and competitive opening fixture. Despite the emphatic score line, there was a period in the first half where they caused us some real problems and we could well have gone in level at the break, had it not been for Sasha’s goalkeeping. Their number 8 in particular was excellent throughout the match and I’m sure the rematch will be a tougher prospect.

Bury Squad: Sasha, Nicole, Amy, Sophie, Eloise (Captain), Jodie, Courteney, Elana and Siana.

Final Score: Dynamo Rangers GFC 2 v Bury Girls & Ladies FC 8

 

25/04/10        Bury Girls & Ladies FC        V        Mill Hill Girls FC

                        North Valley League Cup Final 2009/10 - Further details click here

 

18/04/10        Bury Girls & Ladies FC    V        Leigh Genesis FC

Ahead of our League Cup Final next week, we were very pleased to welcome Andy Burton and his U10 girls from Leigh Genesis FC to our ground at Phillips High for a friendly match. We had been due to play another club, but they had to pull out at short notice and Andy very kindly volunteered to bring his girls along on the day. This also turned out to be a type of Inter-League match as LGFC presently play in the Wigan Girls’ Friendly League, whilst we have been competing in the North Valley League.

Our team was made up as follows: -

Jodie, Sasha, Jessica, Amy, Kiera, Sophie, Kayleigh, Eloise, Courteney and Kristeen.

Given it was a friendly, we split the action into 3 ‘thirds’, giving the girls a chance to take more breaks on a warm day and to allow the managers to experiment with different formations. The pre-match preparations started with a ‘TV-style’ line-up, where all the girls were clapped by the large numbers of parents, grandparents and friends attending from both sides, and the girls then moved down the line, all shaking hands and smiling for the cameras—just like on the telly!!

There was plenty of lively action from the start and it was good end-to-end stuff, with both sides creating opportunities and going close to getting a goal.

It was Bury who seized an opportunity first, with Kristeen scoring from close range, despite the marvellous efforts of the excellent LGFC goalie.

Undeterred, the LGFC girls kept working hard and were rewarded with an excellent goal from the right, slammed into the top corner, giving Sasha in our nets absolutely no chance to save. Score 1-1.

The rest of the match flowed in similar fashion, with the ‘woodwork’ also helping to keep out goals.

Eventually, Bury were able to capitalise on some extra space in the LGFC defence, by sending out its ‘hunting pack’ (Jodie and Sophie) to chase down the ball and deliver it to Kristeen to score two further goals to get her hat trick!!

The match finished at 3-1 to Bury, but it had been an excellent, well-balanced contest, which could have gone either way.

We had a fun penalty shoot out at the end and this brought plenty of laughs and cheers from both sides and their supporters!!

Player of the match for Bury, as voted by the opposition, was Sasha, with Amy getting the vote from our Referee for the day, Andrew Taggart.

Our thanks go to Andy Burton and the Leigh Genesis girls for coming to take part in the match at short notice and for the excellent sporting nature in which they approached the game. Thanks also to Andrew for officiating the game and to all the families and friends for attending and supporting the girls. We look forward to a return fixture at Leigh over the next couple of months.

Final Score:    Bury Girls & Ladies FC    3        Leigh Genesis FC    1

 

 

21/03/10        Bury Girls & Ladies FC    v    Oswaldtwistle St Mary's Girls FC

                      North Valley League Cup Semi-Final played at Townley Park, Burnley

 

Squad:     Amy, Nicole, Kiera, Sophie, Kristeen, Eloise, Jodie, Courteney and Jessica

 

To be honest, when I saw Bury had been drawn against Oswaldtwistle in the League Cup Semi-Final, I feared the worst. Our two league meetings have on the face of it been quite close affairs (Bury going down by the odd goal on both occasions). It must be said that the score lines may have flattered Bury and I would rate Oswaldtwistle as one of the toughest opponents we have played against this season.

 

However, past form counts for nothing in the Cup and Bury Girls were in no mood to give up without a fight. From the very kick-off, Oswaldtwistle were on the back foot and Bury quickly took control of the match. It seemed that every 50/50 ball was going in our favour and Oswaldtwistle’s beleaguered defence were constantly struggling to clear their lines. Whilst we did not create many clear cut scoring chances in the first half, we did force a succession of very dangerous corners. Surely it was just a matter of time before the deadlock would be broken if we continued in the same manner. Such was Bury’s dominance in the first half that stand-in goalie Amy was a virtual spectator as the ever dependable Kiera, Nicole and Sophie broke up anything approaching a threatening move from the Ossy forward line.

 

At half time, Graeme took the opportunity to freshen up the team. Kiera and Jodie were both given a well-deserved rest. In their places, Jessica slotted into midfield and Courteney went into goals giving Amy a run out in defence after her steady first half display.

 

After the break, Bury continued to ratchet up the pressure with both Eloise and Kristeen coming close to breaking the stalemate, both being denied by good saves and frantic last gasp blocks.

 

With ten minutes left of the match, Graeme made his final tactical switch – bringing on Jodie and Keira again to take over from Eloise and Nicole respectively. They had both “run their socks off” and the “fresh legs” proved a turning point. Almost immediately, Kristeen fired a long goal kick over the Oswaldtwistle defence and Jodie ran on to coolly fire in a much-deserved opening goal.

 

With time running out, Oswaldtwistle applied more and more pressure to try and grasp a late equaliser, but the Bury defence of Kiera and Sophie remained solid. Courteney played a blinder in goal commanding the area and comfortably dealing with everything that was thrown at her. Then, with only two minutes to go, Kristeen broke free on the left and fired in the decisive second goal.

 

If there were wild celebrations on the pitch when the final whistle blew, it was nothing compared to the joy and sheer relief of the parents who were watching on nervously from the sidelines.

 

Big congratulations must go to all of the team and the coaching staff for producing such an excellent performance. Thanks must also go to the Oswaldtwistle girls who once again played the game in the proper spirit and were big enough sports to wish us well in the final.

 

Whilst it really is unfair to single out star players when all nine players were stars in their own right, both Amy and Courteney deserve special praise for filling in admirably in goals. Not only did they keep a clean sheet, but they also had the happy knack of making sure their clearances kept finding our own players.

 

Our player of the match award, as voted by the Oswaldtwistle girls, went to Jodie for her tireless running and great all round display. Kiera was voted as the parents’ choice for a colossal performance in defence.

 

One final thought that crossed my mind after the game is that Bury have now got positive results against four of the five teams in our league. It’s “Murphy’s Law” that the only team we have not got a result against “yet” is the runaway league champions and our opponents in the League Cup Final – Mill Hill Girls.

 

However, on the strength of how well the girls played here and how much they were up for the Cup, I wouldn’t rule out Bury claiming another scalp and finishing our first ever season with silverware.

 

Well done girls – You’ve made us all really proud!!

 

Final score: Bury Girls & Ladies FC    2    Oswaldtwistle St Mary's Girls FC    0

Thanks to Paul Douglas (parent) for the match report.

 

14/03/10        Fleetwood Town GIrls FC    V        Bury Girls & Ladies FC

This fixture had been cancelled a number of times across the winter months, due to weather and waterlogged pitch issues. With the onset of Spring, blue sky and sunshine, we were eventually able to make the trip to the North Fylde coast and take on the girls from Fleetwood Town.

Our team was made up as follows: -

Jodie, Jessica, Amy, Kiera, Sophie, Kayleigh, Eloise, Courteney and Kristeen.

Unfortunately, what we had hoped would be a worthy victory at the end of our League campaign for the 2009-10 season turned into a disappointing defeat on the grounds of Memorial Park, next to the Blue Square League stadium of Fleetwood Town.  To repeat an old cliché “we didn’t turn up” would not be far from the truth.  On a day when we fielded a team that was strong enough to score several goals, we eventually were only able to score one and this was not going to be enough to cope with the lively breakaway play of the Fleetwood girls.  Our strongest goalkeeper was unavailable on the day, so Sophie was drafted in as an emergency replacement, but in doing this, we lost a key outfield player in a match where midfield supremacy was going to be a telling factor.  We survived an early scare when Fleetwood hit our post with a speculative early shot and in a further skirmish, Sophie made an excellent  deflection save, only to see the ball bounce away to one of their unmarked forwards for an easy tap in at the near post.  The rest of the match followed a similar pattern, but with chances coming at both ends. The score was still 1-0 at half-time, but we made a good start to the second half, when Kristeen scored an excellent goal to bring it level.  Kayleigh had taken over in our nets at the break and kept the Fleetwood forwards at bay for several minutes, before they again capitalised on confusion in our defence to slot an easy goal home, taking it to 2-1 to Fleetwood. We swapped the team around to try and give everybody an equal share of play and to cope with a couple of injuries incurred along the way.  Despite some chances created by Bury and good pressure with several corner kicks awarded to us, we were also lucky to survive some breakaway moves by the Fleetwood forwards, with further goals only being saved by last gasp runs from our midfield, or Kayleigh’s heroics in goal.  Ultimately, we could not get back an equaliser, which on balance, we would have just about deserved on our overall play.  As it was, we had to succumb to a disappointing loss to the Fleetwood girls, which resulted in us also swapping places with them in the North Valley league table—a real “6-pointer” of a match, as the football pundits would say, with Bury on the wrong end of the result!!

We had a fun penalty shoot out at the end, where many of our team felt that the goalposts had moved in their run-ups to take the kick!!! This shoot-out finished with our coach Mark taking on the Fleetwood manager David, but this finished as an honourable stalemate draw, given both “semi-pros” saved each other’s shots in dramatic fashion!!!

Player of the match for Bury, as voted by the opposition, was Kristeen.

Our thanks go to the Fleetwood girls and managers for hosting the fixture and to all our parents for making the long trip to Fleetwood, plus their ongoing support and encouragement of the girls.

Final Score:    Fleetwood Town Girls FC    2        Bury Girls & Ladies FC    1

 

07/03/10        Bury Girls & Ladies FC        V        Rishton Girls FC

 

Our team for this match was made up as follows: -

 

Sasha, Jodie, Jessica, Amy, Eloise, Kiera, Sophie, Kristeen, Nicole and Courteney.

 

Well—all we can say is what a difference a month can make!!

 

4 weeks ago, we went to Rishton Girls keen to do well after several weeks of “on/off” football, due to problems with snow, rain and waterlogged pitches. We left Rishton dazed from an onslaught of excellent play, physical presence and spectacular goals from the Rishton girls—and a scoreline that read 7-0 to our opponents!

 

Almost the same Bury team turned out for the return match, except we had the benefit of our sole ‘genuine’ Under 10 player Kristeen (being able to find the way this time to her home pitch, so it was a bit easier!) in the starting line-up as Captain, as was our Goalie Sasha. We were missing one of our players of the match from the first Rishton encounter in Kayleigh, but her deputising teammates were certainly up to the challenge.

 

No kidding—this was certainly still a very tough match from the start, with the Rishton girls keen to make their presence felt, but it was Bury throughout the first half who created the better chances and put the excellent Rishton goalie under pressure.

 

Sophie and Kristeen were deployed to try and stifle the attacking prowess of one of the Rishton stars from the first match and this seemed to work for the majority of the first half.  After some great pressure, Bury took the lead through an excellent goal by Eloise and thoroughly deserved this reward.

 

Rishton came back to exert pressure and just before half time, managed to bag a brace of goals following an injury being sustained by Sasha in a very brave initial save, with our defenders being unable to stop one of the Rishton forwards seizing on the loose ball to score. The second goal came for Rishton very shortly afterwards, whilst Sasha was trying to recover and the rest of the team were still holding inquests on how the first goal had happened!

 

The second half followed a similar pattern, with end-to-end play being the order of the day. Bury were eventually rewarded again for their hard work with Kristeen scoring to bring the match even.  Some excellent link-up play by Bury nearly brought us a third goal, with Courteney being only a whisker away from connecting to give us what would surely have been a crucial winning chance.  The match finished in the same fashion as the rest of the game with possible opportunities at either end, but ultimately, it finished in a draw—albeit this felt like a win to all the Bury contingent, given the mauling we had experienced in the away fixture.

 

Player of the match for Bury, as voted by the opposition, was Kristeen, with Eloise taking the management team’s vote for her excellent work all around the pitch and an excellent goal, which opened the scoring for Bury. That said, all the Bury Girls did extremely well against tough opposition and all could have been good candidates for player of the match awards.

 

Our thanks go to the Rishton team for making this a very competitive match, to the referee Lucy Golding for doing an excellent job in marshalling the teams, to Josh and Andy for their linesmen duties and to all our parents for their support and encouragement of the girls.

 

Final Score:    Bury Girls & Ladies FC    2        Rishton Girls FC    2

 

07/02/10    Rishton Girls FC    V        Bury Girls & Ladies FC

In a stop-start season with games called off and postponed on many occasions due to the weather, we were glad to get a chance of a game on grass, with the opponents on this occasion being the girls from Rishton, whom we had not played before, with the match being played at their home ground. As it was, the pitch was only just playable, given the amount of rain and dampness it had obviously absorbed over recent weeks.

Our team was made up as follows: -

Jodie, Jessica, Amy, Eloise, Kiera, Sophie, Kayleigh, Nicole and Courteney.

This turned out from the start to be a very tough uphill struggle for our girls. It was obvious we were facing a team virtually full of true Under 10 aged girls, with plenty of previous football experience, when all our team are really Under 9 age group girls looking for experience of league football. An added disappointment on the day was the loss of our oldest player Kristeen, due to travel problems on the way to the game.

Whilst Bury were keen to get into the game, the physical strength available to the Rishton girls was quickly brought into play and our girls had little opportunity to settle into any routine, losing their confidence in the face of strong tackles and very quick closing-down actions employed by the more experienced Rishton girls.

A number of goals were conceded in quick succession by Bury from various positions and an added blow was the loss of Eloise and her speed, just as she was building up some momentum in midfield, through a poor tackle.  Amy also had to be substituted with an arm injury just on the verge of half time, as a result of some robust tackling from the opposition.  Score at half-time was 4-0 to Rishton.

We were down to our last 7 standing players and Kiera very bravely volunteered to go in goals to give Kayleigh a break from the onslaught. We managed to stage a few isolated attacks with both Jessica and Courteney coming on with their fresh legs and, along with Kayleigh now upfront, having some limited success as the Rishton manager rotated his side to give his girls an opportunity in unfamiliar positions.  Even this rotation did not really affect the quality of the Rishton play and they powered in some fantastic long-range goals, which even some Premiership players would have been proud of. Kiera had absolutely no chance with a number of these and the eventual score finished 7-0 to Rishton.

All credit to the opposition girls for playing well in determined fashion and putting their experience to great effect around the pitch and certainly in front of goal.

We will certainly learn from the experience and this display will prompt us to have a closer rethink on league strategy for next season. We always knew that the 2009-10 season would be an experimental one, playing against higher age group teams, but this is a particular experience that none of us wants to repeat too often.

Player of the match for Bury, as voted by the opposition, was Kayleigh, with Jessica taking the management team’s vote. That said, all the Bury Girls did well  and we are justifiably proud of them.

Our thanks go to the Rishton team for their hosting of the match and to all our parents for their support and encouragement of the girls.

Final Score:  Rishton Girls FC     7        Bury Girls & Ladies FC    0

 

13/12/09    Bury Girls & Ladies FC    V    Oswaldtwistle Girls FC

After a number of matches called off because of waterlogged pitches, we played our next fixture at home and took on a return match against the girls from Oswaldtwistle, where we had narrowly lost 1-0 in the away fixture a few weeks ago. 

Our team was made up as follows: - 

Jodie, Jessica, Amy, Kiera, Sophie, Kayleigh, Nicole, Courteney and Kristeen.

This turned out once again to be a very tough match, with the visitors applying plenty of pressure early on, whilst we struggled to get ourselves organised.  This indecision showed when Oswaldtwistle made the most of confusion in our defence, seizing the opportunity to break free and score past our goalie Kayleigh, who had little chance to stop the shot.  Bury began to have more of the ball as the first half went on and whilst they were managing to keep the “Ossie” attack at bay, there was always the danger of another break, as we left ourselves a little too exposed when trying to move forward to get the equaliser.  This open play eventually gave another opportunity to the opposition, which they took, pushing their advantage to 0-2.

Bury continued to look for opportunities to attack and create space for the forwards, but we were struggling to make any headway against a resilient Oswaldtwistle defence. That said, we did eventually find the gap and Jodie once again put away a fine goal to get us back into the match.  The play was evenly balanced, with Sophie and Nicole keeping it tight at the back, whilst Courteney then took over from Kayleigh in goals, shortly after which she managed to thwart another opposition goal, when unfortunately left in a “1 on 1” situation deep into the second half.  This provided the impetus for Bury to push on in search of the equaliser, with excellent pressure being applied to force some corners and goalmouth ‘skirmishes’ at the Oswaldtwistle end.  Unfortunately, the equaliser never came and the victory went to the girls from Oswaldtwistle. 

All credit to the opposition girls for playing well in determined fashion and putting on an even better show than in the first game with them. Player of the match for Bury, as voted by the opposition, was Nicole, with Sophie taking the management team’s vote. That said, all the Bury Girls did well against strong opposition. 

Our thanks go to the Oswaldtwistle girls and managers for putting on a great match, to our referee Lucy Golding for her efficient and professional control of the match and to all our parents for their support and encouragement of the girls.

Final Score:    Bury Girls & Ladies FC    1        Oswaldtwistle Girls FC    2

 

22/11/09    Lytham YMCA Girls FC    V        Bury Girls & Ladies FC

The next league match for our girls involved a trip out to the Fylde Coast, with the girls from Lytham being our hosts for this game.

 

At a time when a number of matches in the league have had to be called off due to waterlogged pitches, Lytham have been able to keep playing their games, due to the excellent work put in by their ground staff. The pitch was a real credit to their club and it certainly added to the overall game and occasion.

 

The girls taking part for Bury on this occasion were as follows: -

 

Jodie, Jessica (her first game on grass in Bury colours), Kiera, Sophie, Eloise, Kayleigh, Nicole, Courteney, Kristeen and Sasha in goals.

 

We had a tough home match against Lytham a few weeks ago and we had to survive a second-half onslaught from them on that occasion, just about earning our eventual 3-2 win.

 

Whilst they are presently lying at the foot of our league table, that position in no way reflects their capabilities.

 

We found that again in this match, where we were put under pressure from the start, having to repel a number of early attacks. Kayleigh picked up an early injury following a very brave challenge and we had to re-jig the formation, switching Sophie to defence alongside Nicole.

 

Our persistence and strength in midfield eventually paid off, with Eloise latching onto a through ball, shrugging off two defenders and putting an excellent shot past the Lytham goalie.

 

Score stayed at 0-1 to Bury at half time, when we switched the team around to bring on our remaining two reserves.

 

The match was still very evenly balanced, when Kristeen was able to capitalise on some momentary confusion in the Lytham defence and create herself enough space to slot the ball home—0-2 to Bury.

 

This goal spurred Lytham on and after a further period of pressure, they managed to get a goal back, despite a despairing dive from our keeper Sasha-1-2 to Bury.

 

Pressure was on now and one of the Lytham forwards broke free down the middle with only the goalie to beat. This would have been a tough ‘one on one’ for Sasha to cope with, had it not been for a ‘lung-bursting’ run from Sophie to catch the forward and get in a great tackle to stifle the attack.

 

Pressure at the back galvanised Jodie into action once again and she went on one of her ‘trademark’ solo runs to beat several defenders and score a great individual goal-1-3 to Bury.

 

The remainder of the game brought opportunities at both ends—Lytham had a few shots just  wide of our goals, whilst we continued to swop girls around to give everyone a reasonable run on the pitch and some excellent saves from Millie in the Lytham goal restricted our ability to score any more goals.

 

Final whistle went with Bury taking a deserved away win, but all credit to the girls from Lytham for putting on a great show once again. Player of the match for Bury, as voted by the Lytham girls, was Kristeen, with Jodie taking the management team’s vote, but in reality, all the Bury squad deserved special mention as they all played well in blustery conditions.

 

Our thanks go to the Lytham girls and managers for putting on a great match, to their ground staff for the excellent pitch and to all our parents for making the long trip to Lytham to enable their daughters to represent Bury Girls & Ladies FC.

 

Well done girls—we have moved up to third in the League with this win!!

 

Final Score:    Lytham YMCA Girls FC    1        Bury Girls & Ladies FC    3

 

 

08/11/09        Mill Hill Girls FC        V        Bury Girls & Ladies FC

25/10/09    Oswaldtwistle St. Mary’s  FC    v     Bury Girls & Ladies FC

This was the girls’ first away game of the season--we were not sure how long it would take to get there, but Paul D set off early so he could get a Full English Breakfast before the match at the local café.

It was a windy morning, but from the kick off, Bury Girls started positively with Kristeen pushing the girls forward, resulting in a few early chances. Oswaldtwistle then started to come into it a bit more and Kayleigh in our goal made a few good saves. Bury Girls then went back up the other end and Kiera had a good shot on goal which was saved.

It was end to end and the girls were tackling and chasing everything--as half time came, the sides were level at 0-0.

Graeme had a talk to the girls and asked for more of the same in the second half.

Bury Girls kicked off the second half and Eloise had a good shot on goal, but then Kayleigh had to make 2 good saves from Oswaldtwistle. Courteney had a good chance to score but pulled her shot past the post.

Oswaldtwistle then created a chance and scored a very good goal, which unfortunately Kayleigh had no chance with. Bury pushed forward for an equaliser, but it would not come--the match ended at 1-0 to Oswaldtwistle.

Kayleigh had a good game in goal and if she keeps making those saves, her mum is going to lose some money!

Kristeen got the Player of the Match for Bury Girls, awarded by the opposition manager. Our own Player of the Match award from our manager went to Sophie on this occasion.

Thank you to all the parents who made the trip over to Oswaldtwistle to support the girls.

Final Score: Oswaldtwistle St Marys     1        Bury Girls & Ladies FC    0

Thanks to John Alty for the match report

 

 

18/10/09        Bury Girls & Ladies FC        V         Lytham YMCA Girls FC

If ever a match can be described as the proverbial game of two halves, this was it. I don't know if the Lytham girls were just feeling the effects of their long journey but they didn't know what had hit them in the first half.

Straight from the kick off, Bury Girls were on top note winning every challenge and pinning Lytham back into their own penalty area with wave after wave of attacks. On another day, Courteney would have scored a hat trick in the first 10 minutes with all of the chances that came her way. Eloise also had a great effort that came back off the post and Kristeen forced a couple of great stops from their keeper.

Eventually, all of the pressure told and Kristeen opened the scoring after a fine individual run. Shortly afterwards, Courteney's luck changed and she added a well-taken second goal, but only after deftly controlling the ball with her 'posterior'!!!

Such was Bury's dominance in the first half that Jodie was a virtual spectator in goal. Sophie put in an excellent captain's performance covering every part of the pitch and organising her teammates when required. Despite keeping up the intense pressure and creating plenty of chances, the score at half time was a "comfortable" 2 -0 lead to Bury.

We made a couple of changes at half time and I think we were all expecting more of the same stuff in the second half, but Lytham weren't for giving up quite so easily. I don't know what Lytham's manager said to them at half time, but whatever it was, it worked!

All of a sudden, it was Bury that were struggling to get the ball out of their own area and all of our excellent passing and running of the first half dried up. Lytham pulled one back in the first couple of minutes and the game was suddenly very much alive again. The teams seemed a lot closer matched than earlier and it was end-to-end stuff. With five minutes to go, Lytham scored an excellent and well-deserved equaliser. I think quite a few of the Bury parents feared that if any team were more likely to win, it would be the visitors.

However, we need not have worried as the Bury Girls stepped up their efforts to win the game all over again. Following a lovely flowing move that involved all of our forward line, Jodie fired home a decisive winning goal in the last minute of normal time.

Overall, I think our play warranted the win, but it was nail-biting stuff and I for one was glad when the referee blew up for full time. Whilst our performance at times after the break was patchy, we must take confidence from the quality of our first half play and the nerve showed by the girls in going on to win the game after conceding an equaliser so late in the match.

Our player of the match nominated by the Lytham manager was Courteney for her goal and her all round excellent forward play. She may not have stung her Dad for big money this week (She's on £1 a goal!!), but she always has the uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time when the ball is played through.

Our own player of the match award went to Nicole, who was the model of commitment throughout the game. Not only did she turn in a faultless performance in the first half in defence, but she also filled in as goalie during the tense closing minutes.

A very big thank you must go to the girls and parents from Lytham for making the long journey to Bury. It will be interesting to see how closely matched the teams are in the reverse fixture, once we've both got some more match experience behind us.

The 10 girls attending the match on behalf of Bury Girls & Ladies FC were as follows: -
Jodie, Sophie, Amy, Nicole, Courteney, Kristeen, Eloise, Hannah, Casey and Kiera.
 

Final Score:    Bury Girls & Ladies FC    3      Lytham YMCA Girls FC    2

Thanks to Paul Douglas for the match report

 

27/09/09        Bury Girls & Ladies FC        V        Fleetwood Town Girls FC

After the heavy defeat against Mill Hill Girls FC last week, the Bury U10s girls were looking forward to a better result when they took on Charlotte and her girls from Fleetwood Town at the ‘Phillips Superdome’ today.

We ended up with 11 girls in the Bury squad on the day—7 players in the starting line up, with 4 reserves to come on during the match. All the girls who did not play for various reasons last week were in the starting line-up this time.

The 11 girls attending the match on behalf of Bury Girls & Ladies FC were as follows: - 

Eloise, Jade, Hannah, Amy, Kayleigh, Casey, Sasha, Jodie, Kristeen, Kiera and Nicole

During the first half, the game was “end to end” stuff, with some strong pressure being applied by the Fleetwood front line, meaning that Kayleigh had to be on her toes in the Bury net.

Amy had to come off the pitch early in the half after very bravely cutting out a cross from Fleetwood with her nose and cheek—it doesn’t matter how you do it, she just did and it saved us from a difficult goalmouth scramble! Sasha was also ‘in the wars’ after suffering an injury to her foot during a lively tussle for the ball on the left wing.

Despite having to juggle our formation once again, the players came in at half time on a level footing at 0-0. Jade was tired out after much running in the first half and handed her captaincy over to Amy, who was keen to get back into the action.

The second half started brightly for Bury, with Kristeen taking over goalkeeping duties to give Kayleigh a run out of net. This managed to confuse our team as much as Fleetwood, but it was the visitors who capitalised on some confusion in the Bury defence to push a goal past Kristeen and take the lead.

It wasn’t long before Jodie was able to get into her stride from the sub’s bench to storm into the Fleetwood box and earn a penalty after being pulled down on the right. She then converted the penalty, bringing the scores level at 1-1.

Further strong play followed from our girls and after a period of sustained pressure, Sasha, Eloise and Jodie were able to add further goals from a mixture of positions—making the score 4-1 in our favour.

We managed to contain some strong runs from the Fleetwood forwards, whilst also going close ourselves with a couple of attempts off the post, a dramatic ‘air-shot’ from Eloise near the penalty spot and an excellent point-blank save from the Fleetwood keeper. All our girls were brought back into the action during the second half to enhance their match experiences.

The match was played in a very sporting manner and this was once again acknowledged by the referee, Mick, the junior referee mentor from the Bury Referees Association, who officiated on the day.

Our player of the match nominated by the Fleetwood Town Manager, Charlotte, was Eloise for her excellent running in all areas of the pitch and the hard work she put in, getting due reward with a goal of her own in the second half. She took home our new mascot—“Foxy”—as a memory of the day.

Our own player of the match award went to Sasha to reflect her hard work, overall commitment throughout the game and again for rounding it off with a goal.

Thanks to all the Bury parents for bringing the girls along and to Mark Edwards as Assistant Manager and First Aider with Eilish. Thanks also of course to Charlotte, her assistant, parents and the girls from Fleetwood Town for putting on a great match and for traveling such a distance to take part.

Final Score:    Bury Girls & Ladies FC    4        Fleetwood Town Girls FC    1

 

20/09/09        Bury Girls & Ladies FC        V        Mill Hill Girls FC

After our first match of the new North Valley League season had to be postponed at our opponent’s request, the Bury girls were raring to go against  this weeks’ opposition—the Under 10s squad from Mill Hill Girls FC, who are based in the Blackburn, Lancashire area.

In line with the manager’s strategy recently advised to our squad and their parents ahead of the new season, we had 10 girls in the Bury squad on the day—7 players in the starting line up, with 3 reserves to come on during the match.

The 10 girls attending the match on behalf of Bury Girls & Ladies FC were as follows: - 

Courteney, Sophie, Jodie, Kristeen, Eloise, Nicole, Kayleigh, Casey, Sasha and Amy  

During the first half, despite having to switch our team around a fair amount due to a couple of injuries, the girls did very well against the experienced girls of the Mill Hill team. We initially went 0-2 down, but  managed to pull back one through Courteney before the break—resulting in a very creditable 1-2 score line at half time.

Unfortunately, we began to tire during the early part of the second half and the experience and strength in depth of Mill Hill began to tell.

Kayleigh undertook all goalkeeping duties throughout the match and whilst she achieved some great saves in the face of some strong attacking play from the opposition team, she was left too exposed by her team mates. The final score was 1-7-admittedly a heavy defeat, but not really reflective of the hard work put in by our girls, particularly in the first half of the match.

The match was played in a very sporting manner and this was acknowledged by the referee, Mick, the junior referee mentor from the Bury Referees Association, who officiated on the day.

Our player of the match nominated by the Mill Hill Manager, Kelvin, was Kristeen for her excellent running in all areas of the pitch and the hard work she put in, despite picking up a couple of injuries.

Our own player of the match award went to Jodie to reflect her hard work, strong running and overall commitment throughout the game.

Thanks to all the Bury parents for bringing the girls along, to Mark Edwards as Assistant Manager and First Aider with Eilish. Thanks also of course to Kelvin and the girls from Mill Hill for putting on a great match.

We look forward to trying to turn around the result when we visit Blackburn for the return match across the next couple of months!!

 

23/08/09    Bury Girls & Ladies FC        V        Preston North End Girls FC

We were recently invited to field a team to face the Under 10s side from Preston North End FC.  The match was played at our home ground and we were once again playing a team where most of the girls taking part for Preston were actually in the next school year above our girls.

We had an excellent turnout, with 11 girls attending the match on behalf of Bury Girls & Ladies FC as follows: - 

Courtney, Sophie, Kayleigh, Casey, Amy, Jodie, Molly, Nicole, Jade, Kristeen and Hannah (first match in Bury colours)  

We split the overall game into 3 sections to give plenty of opportunity for breaks on a hot afternoon and to experiment with different formations. Preston could actually only field 6 players due to illness and holiday absence, so it was agreed that we would provide one player from our squad in each of the 3 sections. This ensured that we played in the 7-a-side format that will be used in both sides’ league matches in the coming season and also helped us in not having too many of our own girls as substitutes for each of the ‘games’.

Our thanks go to Sophie, Courteney and Casey for volunteering to play a  game in the Preston team during the afternoon.

We did some ‘roll on-roll off’ substitutions to ensure that all the girls kept involved and to give everyone an equal amount of ‘pitch time’.  Our new ‘main’ goalkeeper Kayleigh looked after the net in the first two games, whilst Molly completed the goalkeeping duties in the last game—they both did very well against a strong Preston team, particularly as it must be said they were left too ‘exposed’ on a number of occasions, with very little defensive cover.

Results of the three games played on the afternoon were as follows: -

·         Bury Girls    0-4   Preston NE

·         Bury Girls    0-1   Preston NE

·         Bury Girls    2-1   Preston NE

All were closely fought games and enjoyed by all. We were pleased with our results against the generally more experienced girls from Preston and the matches were played in a very sporting manner. All our players did very well, putting lots of effort in on a warm afternoon and they created a number of chances.

Kristeen put away a couple of excellent goals in the final match and this ‘win’ was the least our players deserved for all their hard work. Our player of the match award was given to Kayleigh, who worked very hard on her debut as our main goalkeeper and made a string of important saves, particularly in the second match.

Thanks to all the parents for bringing the girls along, to Manager Ashley and the girls from Preston NE for travelling down to the match and to our main referee for the afternoon, Andrew Taggart. We look forward to getting the chance to have a return match over the next 2-3 months.

 

02/08/09    Heyside Angels & Denton Town Friendly

We were invited to take part in a ‘round-robin’ 7-a-side friendly match with two local Under 10s sides for the 2009-10 season—Heyside Angels and Denton Town--on 3G Astroturf grass pitches used by Heyside in Royton, near Oldham.

We were once again playing teams that are actually this season’s Under 9s, so most of the girls taking part for the other teams were actually in the next school year above our girls.

The 8 girls attending the match on behalf of Bury Girls & Ladies FC were as follows: - 

 Courteney, Sophie, Casey, Amy, Kiera, Molly, Nicole, Kristeen (first match in Bury colours)  

We did some ‘roll on-roll off’ substitutions to ensure that all the girls kept involved and to give everyone an equal amount of ‘pitch time’.  Molly and Casey shared the goalkeeping duties and did very well.

Results of the three games played on the afternoon (only a short time was available overall, as the pitches were in great demand) were as follows: -

·         Denton Town    0-4 Heyside Angels

·         Bury Girls       0-0 Denton Town

·         Heyside Angels  2-0 Bury Girls

All were closely fought games and enjoyed by all. We were pleased with our results against these more experienced teams and the matches were played in a very sporting manner.

All our players did very well, putting lots of effort in on a warm afternoon and they created a number of chances. Our player of the match award was given to Kristeen, who worked very hard on her debut for the team in all parts of the pitch.

Thanks to all the parents for bringing the girls along and thanks also of course to the organisers at Heyside. We look forward to getting the chance to return the favour over the next couple of months.

Click here for photos from the day

 

20/06/09    Aspull Belles FC        V        Bury Girls & Ladies FC

Bury Team : Courteney, Nicole, Jade, Molly H, Molly N, Sophie and Katie.

The girls travelled to Aspull on Saturday 20^th June for a friendly match. This was Aspull’s first home match. After some great tackles and defending, the game was eventually won by Aspull, by a score of 3-0.

However this did not phase the girls and a team talk by Graeme and Mark whilst the girls enjoyed hotdogs and drinks kindly provided by the away team, whose hospitality and friendship was gratefully received.

Well done to all who took part.

The Match Player for Bury U9’s was Nicole.

 

14/06/09        Euxton Girls FC       V            Bury Girls & Ladies FC

Our next friendly match was played away at Euxton (pronounced “Exton”) Girls FC, near Chorley. We played Euxton recently in matches at the Golborne Tournament and had some close games against them. 

Like our other recent opponents, Euxton are a squad generally made up of Under 9s players from the 2008-2009 age group, although they did also have some recent new recruits, who were only just getting used to football matches. The team have been playing in the local Wigan ‘development’ league this season.

On this occasion, our Under 9s girls were again joined by a couple of our Under 8s girls, which always helps to give everybody a taste of competitive football. A number of the Under 9s squad were not available for selection, due to clashes with other activities or family obligations.

The girls attending the match from Bury Girls & Ladies FC were as follows: -

Courtney    Katie    Sophie    Eloise    Molly N   Kayleigh   Molly H   Amy   Jo

The match was divided into 3 “thirds” to give regular breaks and an opportunity to take on drinks and swap players around on a hot afternoon.

We did some ‘roll on-roll off’ substitutions to ensure that all the girls kept involved and to give everyone an equal amount of ‘pitch time’.

After a close fought game, Euxton were the eventual winners 5-3, with Courtney scoring 2 of the Bury goals and with debutant Amy adding the third! Well done to the two of you and to all your team mates for the excellent support given!

On this occasion, we awarded Courtney with our new ‘Player of the Match’ trophy for the Bury Girls-an excellent performance after her illness during the week.

The match was played in a competitive spirit and a very sporting fashion, overseen by a local lady referee, who was very complimentary about the playing standard and sporting nature seen from both sides.

All the girls lined up to shake the hands of their opponents at the end of the game and we rounded the afternoon off with a penalty competition between the Bury Girls—Molly H eventually taking the honours after a ‘sudden-death’ climax with two of her teammates!!

Thanks to manager Chris and the Euxton Girls for hosting the game and for playing it in a very sporting and friendly fashion. We look forward to getting the chance to have a return match in due course.

 

 

16/05/09        Bury Girls & Ladies FC        V        Astley & Tyldesley Girls FC

Our second outing in a friendly match on a grass pitch was played at home (Phillips High School) against an Under 9s Team (2008-2009 age group) from Astley & Tyldesley (“A&T”).

Like our first opponents Aspull, A&T have been playing in a local Wigan ‘development’ league this season and have enjoyed some good success in the matches they have played. They once again provided an excellent test and match experience for all the enthusiastic girls that have been attending our Under 8s training sessions over recent months.

On this occasion, the girls of our newly formed Under 9s squad were again joined by some of the Under 8s girls and some of the youngest girls from our Under 10s section, which helped to give everybody a taste of competitive football and kept the match relatively balanced.

We once again had an excellent turnout for this 7-a-side match.

The girls attending the match from Bury Girls & Ladies FC were as follows: -

Courtney   Katie   Ella   Lizzie   Sophie   Eloise   Aimee   Molly N   Maisie   Chaela

We did some ‘roll on-roll off’ substitutions to ensure that all the girls kept involved and to give everyone an equal amount of ‘pitch time’. Whilst the experience of the A&T girls resulted in an eventual score of 7-3 in their favour, the games were well balanced and everyone enjoyed the experience. Aimee, Maisie and Chaela provided the goals for Bury-well done girls!!!

All the girls lined up to shake the hands of their opponents at the end of the game and we then had an exciting penalty shootout competition, where both keepers took it in turns to face penalties from all the outfield players.

All had a great time and appeared to thoroughly enjoy the experience, which will again be of great benefit as they play more matches over the coming months.

Thanks to manager Paul (standing in for Dino) and the A&T girls for travelling down to our ground and for playing the game in a very sporting and friendly fashion. We look forward to getting the chance to have a return match in due course.

 

 

02/05/09        Bury Girls & Ladies FC        V        Aspull Belles FC

 

Today saw our first outing in a friendly match on a grass pitch—we were playing at home (Phillips High School) against an Under 9s Team (2008-2009 age group) from the Wigan area—the ‘Aspull Belles’.

 

Aspull have been playing in a local Wigan ‘development’ league this season and have certainly enjoyed some success in the matches they have played. They are looking to join a formal Under 10s league for 2009-2010 and as such, they provided an excellent first test and match experience for all the enthusiastic girls that have been attending our Under 8s training sessions over recent months.

 

On this occasion, the girls of our newly formed Under 9s squad were joined by some of the girls from our Under 8s section, which helped to give everybody a taste of competitive football. Some girls were away on holiday due to it being a bank holiday weekend, but we still had an excellent turnout for this 7-a-side match. Casey, who has been playing some matches with our Under 10s squad this season, also joined us for this friendly, as she is in Year 3 at the moment.

 

The girls attending the match from Bury Girls & Ladies FC were as follows: -

 

•              Courtney          Katie         Ella           Lizzie            Jade             Casey

• Kayleigh              Megan         Cody        Kiera             Jodie          Sophie            Molly

 

We divided the match into 4 sections to give plenty of time for breaks and drinks on a hot day and this also gave us the opportunity to try different formations, given we had the luxury of plenty of players to pick from.

 

We started the game with all our older players ‘outfield’, but with Molly N from the U8s in goal. This gave us a great start and we had a very competitive game, with plenty of action around the pitch. This finished in an exciting 0-0 draw, with all players equally involved and with a particularly fine display from Molly in nets holding the Aspull forwards at bay.

 

In the second session, all our younger players took the outfield positions and Megan offered to be the goalkeeper. Whilst the experience of the ‘Belles’ resulted in a number of goals being scored for the opposition, Megan did very well to keep out a number of other possible goals during this session.

 

In the third and fourth sessions, we mixed the players up between the U9s and the U8s and all enjoyed the experience of playing with a variety of their teammates.  We did some ‘roll on-roll off’ substitutions to ensure that all the girls kept involved and to give everyone an equal amount of ‘pitch time’. The Belles were still able to score some further goals, but the games were well balanced and everyone enjoyed the experience.

 

All the girls lined up to shake the hands of their opponents at the end of the game and we then had an exciting penalty shootout competition, where both keepers took it in turns to face penalties from all the outfield players. Casey took on the goalkeeping responsibilities for Bury and did very well during the shootout.

 

All had a great time and whilst Bury could not quite achieve a goal against the Belles, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience, which will be of great benefit as they play more matches over the coming months.

 

Thanks to the manager Rob and the Aspull girls for travelling down to our ground and for playing the game in a very sporting and friendly fashion. We look forward to getting the chance to have a return match in due course.

 

 

THANKS AS ALWAYS TO ALL THE BURY GIRLS AND THEIR PARENTS FOR YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE CLUB-LET’S ENJOY FOOTBALL TOGETHER!!

 

Graeme Taggart - Under 9s Manager/Coach

Mark Edwards - Under 9s Assistant Coach