This Saturday saw Lions play the first of three upcoming games against Real Bedford Pirates. With Real Bedford sitting top of Division 1 and undefeated, sweeping their opponents aside with relative ease, the muchly anticipated game would give the Lions a real opportunity to see how far they’ve developed this season since stepping up an age range.
As expected, Real were class from the start. Players in every position were not only physically strong, but demonstrated skill and agility on the ball. Lions had to be extremely disciplined at the back to soak up the early pressure. A strong block from Sienna was needed to prevent a shot on goal and whilst Lions were able to get out of their half on several occasions in the early minutes, Tehila found herself mostly isolated. Real continued to move the ball smoothly between their lines and were quite devastating on the counter attack.
A strong clearance from Evelyn eased the pressure on the Lions’ defence, but again Real attacked with a decent shot fizzing wide of the post. Moments later, another shot was fired across the goal, with Lauren diving down low to tip the ball away for a corner.
Lions held their positions well and whilst Real continued to press, their opportunities were restricted to longer ranged efforts. When they attempted to break through into the box, Georgia was on hand to intercept and her swift pass almost found Gracie wide left but the ball ran off the pitch before the Lions winger could reach it.
Tehila continued to press up top, and almost found herself through on goal after some pressure on the Bedford defence nearly resulted in an error, but the keeper was able to collect the ball on the edge of her box. Moments later, Bella had a decent opportunity after a ball from Heidi found her in the penalty area with some rare space. However, the keeper made a comfortable save from the resulting shot.
Real came again, and it required good communication between Kiera, Sienna and Evelyn to keep the ball out of the box. Heidi’s defensive work was particularly strong this week, supporting the Lions’ back line, and a couple of challenges in quick succession kept the home side at bay. A huge clearance from Kiera almost set Tehila off, but Real were quick to react. Some neat link-up play between Tehila and Bella almost paid off, but Bella couldn’t quite bring the ball under control before being challenged.
A Real corner was dealt with bravely by Kiera, who was a formidable wall, blocking the well struck cross and clearing the ball away.
One of Lions’ best efforts of the half came from some excellent pressure from Tehila on the Real centre back, who was forced into a back pass to the keeper which the Lions striker was almost able to reach, but she just couldn’t get her toe to the ball before it was collected.
The deadlock was eventually broken against the run of play, after Real capitalised on a misplaced Lions throw-in by the Real corner flag. The speed and accuracy at which Real were able to counter was devastating, resulting in an unstoppable shot that saw the home side go one up. Real continued to press in the latter stages of the half and Lauren was called upon several times to make saves. Lions had their opportunities too. Some nice passing between Gracie and Tehila saw the ball eventually played out to Heidi on the right wing. She managed to beat her marker and whip in a decent cross but it was intercepted well.
The first half finished with another Real goal, a powerful effort that gave Lauren little chance.
Despite being 2 down, Lions kept their heads held high. They continued to defend in an organised manner with a brave tackle by Sienna followed by a strong foot in by Gracie to prevent Real reaching the penalty area. Lions seemed more able to get players further up the pitch in the second half which was beginning to cause Real ‘real’ problems! Bella was almost able to snatch the ball off of the Real defender after some decent pressure. Moments later, some quality passing between Amber and Bella resulted in a tasty through ball that the Real defender was just about able to deal with.
Real’s chances were limited, and when they did advance, Freya stood strong to force the attacker off the pitch. Freya was in on the action soon after, with a superb ball up field to Olivia, but the Lions attacker was well challenged before being able to move the ball on.
However, Amber was soon on the break with a speedy run down the left having lost her marker. Her inviting cross flashed across the penalty box, but nobody was able to get on the end of it. A tidy one-two between Amber and Evelyn set the winger off again on another run, but this time the cross was well blocked. Lions were enjoying some success down the left, and again Amber managed to escape her defender. This time her whipped-in ball found Bella on the outside of Real’s penalty area. Her ball inside to Olivia was shot goal wards, almost ripping a hole in the back of the net.
Whilst strong challenges from Georgia and Bella were needed to squash a Real attack, the home side were rattled, and Lions felt the equaliser was within their grasp. One last press in the dying minutes saw Amber take on her defender a fizz a ball across the face of the goal to the outstretched leg of Bella who was a toenail away from reaching it.
Despite losing the game, the second half belonged to the Lions and they came away from the match immensely proud of their performance, and with an optimism that they can certainly go toe to toe with this great Real Bedford side. Bring on the rematch!
This week’s player of the match: Heidi
