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West Lancs Girls League Tournament at Wigan
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Under 8s & Under 10s Squads
West Lancashire League Under 9 Girls Tournament
DW Soccerdome, Wigan
Saturday 21st November 2009
The next tournament outing for qualifying players from the Under 10s squad and those players wishing to get involved from the Under 8s squad took place on the above date.
In total, we had 13 girls involved from Bury Girls & Ladies FC in this Under 9s 5-a-side friendly tournament, which was a great turnout and all the girls were a real credit to their club.
We mixed the two squads up in terms of experience, age and ability and provided two teams for the tournament, which had enough overall entries to run 3 mini-tournaments comprising 14 teams overall.
One of our leagues was affected by the late withdrawal of a team from another club, meaning that one of our teams played 3 separate matches, whilst the other team played 4 matches in their ‘league’. All the matches were played on a ‘round-robin’ basis, so there were no semi-finals, finals, playoffs etc, as the tournament was done on a ‘non-competitive’ basis.
The outcome for each of our teams was as follows: -
Team members-Courteney, Nicole, Jade, Amy, Molly and Jo
Birkdale 2-0 Bury
Aspull 0-1 Bury
The first 3 matches were tough games for our girls, with a number of them volunteering to go in goals to let their teammates take up outfield positions.
We came up against well-organised teams who tested our defence and gave us precious few opportunities to break out and create goal-scoring chances.
All credit must though go to our girls for continuing to fight on despite going behind in these games, with the score in the first game particularly not really reflecting the excellent defending achieved by Bury.
Particular praise must go to our younger girls Molly and Jo, who were not fazed in any way by some of the older girls facing them.
The hard work of the squad did though pay off in the final match against an experienced Aspull team, when Amy broke free from a deep position and scored an excellent goal!
Aspull kept trying to get the game level, but good teamwork and strong defending managed to keep them out, allowing Bury “Reds” to finish the tournament on a high note!
Team members-Sasha, Kiera, Sophie, Jodie, Eloise, Katie and Jessica
Fillies 0-2 Bury
Whilst this league suffered through the late withdrawal of one team, the remaining teams certainly made the most out of their attendance and treated us to some fine displays.
In Bury “Blacks” first game, they took on the slightly older girls from Penwortham, but Bury’s overall experience showed from an early point in the game, with a good overall team move being crowned by an excellent goal from Jodie. Further great goals from Eloise and Kiera followed, allowing Bury to relax and enjoy the experience. There was some good pressure at times from Penwortham, but thankfully, Sasha showed her growing confidence in nets and managed to keep their forwards at bay.
The second match followed a similar pattern, with Jodie and Sophie both finding the net, whilst our defence had to work hard to keep the lively Fillies forwards pegged back, allowing Sasha once again to mop up any balls that managed to get through.
The final match was against a team from our own league leaders, Mill Hill, so we did have some experience of their high standard of play before this tournament began. We did not have to worry though, as our girls once again worked well as a team, even allowing for roll-on / roll-off substitutions during the game and giving Sasha a run out of net, courtesy of Eloise volunteering to take over the goalkeeping duties.
This change was a revelation for Sasha, as she proceeded to score two excellent goals, which then inspired Kiera to bag her second of the tournament, leading to a comfortable victory for Bury, with all girls in the squad having experienced plenty of pitch time. Once again, well done particularly to Jessica, taking part in her first game for Bury, and to our youngest squad member, Katie, for getting ‘stuck in’ in defence and stopping several dangerous attacks.
It was great to see an excellent turnout from Bury Girls & Ladies FC at this tournament and they did us proud. They were well behaved, played in a sporting manner and worked hard for their respective teams.
Even when they went behind in some of their games, the Bury “Reds” kept their chins up and rallied around each other to try and get back in the game. The Bury “Blacks” worked well in their league and scored early in each game to settle their nerves and set up a winning position.
All the girls seemed to thoroughly enjoy the afternoon and it was a great opportunity for some of the Under 8 / non-League Team girls to get a taste of “semi-competitive” football.
Our thanks go to Julie Edwards and her organising team, plus referees at West Lancashire League for putting the event together and to all the parents for bringing their girls along to make it a great afternoon!
GRAEME TAGGART, MANAGER & MARK EDWARDS, COACH-Bury Girls & Ladies FC
