21/10/18 Summertown Stars v Headington Ladies

Summertown Stars Ladies v Headington Ladies, Oxfordshire Football Association County Cup First Round, Cutteslowe Park, Kick Off 1.30pm

Team: Lou (gk), Anna, Jess, Nicöla, Madhana, Kim, Snowy, Emma, Andreea, Malin, Mary, Freya, Danielle, CD and Zoe

Score: 2 – 3 (Malin, Andreea and Mary)

Manager: Marc

Supporter’s club: Nico, Sarah C, H, Scout, Newps, baby Newps, Alan, Angel and Snowy and Emma’s friend (sorry don’t know the name!)

Special thanks to Philip for running the line for us today!!!

We arrived in good time, well some of us arrived in good time. No one got lost, no way no one, except Madhana, there’s always one eh? Well actually we also had a lost Danielle who found a housing estate and a lost Mary who had walked through a random gate but even this couldn’t beat Zoe, oh, Zoe, Zoe Zoe, what on earth are we going to do with you? Zoe was waiting for us at OX4 so had to cycle like the wind to get across town to Cutteslowe!!! Meanwhile on the A34 in the Fleckers chuckle wagon Nico was doing an impression of a sprinkler….so anyway back to the plot. We warmed up and realised that we didn’t have the balls or equipment so borrowed a ball from Summertown Stars and played a 7 v 7, unfortunately we didn’t have the bibs and were all wearing purple so no one knew who was on which team, not great preparation!!!! We haven’t been to Cutteslowe for a while but the miniature trains were running, with a lovely ethanol aroma wafting over the pitch, sadly the aviaries were empty which was a shame but the park was very busy on a lovely autumnal day.

We lost the toss and kicked off the match with the sun on our right, the pitch was very small which would suit Summertown’s style of play. We started really well and took control of the match, we pressed forward looking to score goals and it didn’t take us too long to get onto the score sheet. Some superb play by Malin on the left of the penalty area saw her come across the defender and shoot past the keeper for her first goal of the season, great finish!! We continued to dominate but we couldn’t get our scoring boots to work, we had efforts from Andreea, Malin, Snowy, Mary but couldn’t find the netty thing. We switched off momentarily and conceded an equalizer, a Summertown player out muscled one of our defenders and with Lou in no-man’s land saw the opportunity and lobbed her to score a well taken goal. Undeterred we settled down and continued to dominate but had to wait until the 45th minute before we got the goal our dominance deserved. Andreea chased in a lovely through ball just beating the keeper and defender to stroke the ball home just as the referee was about to blow for half time.

We made some more changes and got ourselves set for the second half. Summertown kicked off and as with the first half we continued to dominate proceedings but again didn’t take our chances, we created some great openings but couldn’t get that third goal!! As the game wore on we were looking more and more likely to score again and thankfully the breakthrough came after about 70 minutes with Mary continuing her fine form by scoring our third following a great team move!!! Superb stuff, we so nearly added a fourth with a goal mouth melee and I still don’t know how we didn’t score! The game was interrupted several times by a small French Bulldog who was as keen as mustard to get in on the football act. We went close again through an effort from Freya and a superb header from Emma at a corner. With the clock ticking down we were getting a little sloppy and a momentary switch off at the back saw their striker beat Lou from 20 yards to give Summertown a second goal. The game ended giving us our first win in five games!

Player of the match Jess and Emma!!

Next week we’re at home against Westwood Wanderers in the League Cup.