The weather was miserable but the Panthers were in strong spirits when they arrived at the Deanshanger sports club!
The pitch was questionable and a member of the Deanshanger team was filling holes on the pitch with sand. This didn’t stop the panthers having a strong warm up ready for the next step up in opposition level!
Ava went early with the mind games and having won rock, paper, scissors opted to switch ends with the opposition meaning panthers could make the most of the obvious slope on the pitch!! It’s fair to say it all went downhill from there for Deanshanger!
The panthers started strong with some fabulous passing and Rosie making the most of her new winger position feeding balls in to the box for Maddie upfront!! The panthers tested the keeper a few times but she remained strong!! It was going to take something special to breakdown this opposition and that something special came from a very special defender!! The ball was pinging around the opposition box and it found itself making its way out to the edge of the box where cool as a cucumber, Ivy took the most stunning shot and put a lightning bolt through the back of the Deanshanger net!! What a star and what a start!!
The whistle blew for the end of the first quarter and the panthers were purring and ready to get going in the second!! A few switches brought Floss on to the right and Ilana out on the left with Rosie back in the middle ready to rival her sister for goals!! Crouchy came in to defence alongside Ivy ensuring our back line was strong!! Scarlett remained in the centre mid where she had been bossing the game so far!!
Some fabulous passing ensued and you could see the panthers were up for the challenge. The game didn’t come easy though as Deanshanger also shook things up, moving players around and their number 7 was like a whippet down the line!! The defence stood strong and Ava kept everyone in line with her strong shouting!!
A couple of big saves were needed this quarter with Ava on hand to stop the ball crossing her line!!
Some big kicks and wonderful distribution helped ensure that the panthers kept on top and soon a fabulous pass from Rosie in to Quinn, followed by a rocket of a shot meant the panthers were 2-0 up!! They now had their tails up and were feeling invincible!! Some more wonderful passing between the firing front three with a shot from Quinn, hitting the post, a pass from Rosie landed at the feet of Floss who booted the ball home!! The crowd were well and truly cheering now!!
Rosie was sniffing blood and was ready to get herself on the scoresheet with a beautiful run, skinning the Deanshanger defence and then an absolute rocket that nearly took the keepers head off!! Sorry keep, you just don’t save balls hit with that skill!! The half time whistle blew and the panthers went in 4-0 up at half time!!
The Deanshanger coach had obviously shook her team up as they came out raring to go in the third quarter and the panthers could sense the pressure had lifted a lot!! It was going to take some tremendous team work to keep the pressure at bay and boy did that come in this quarter!! The girls all fought for each other with everyone getting back when needed and a few fine breaks from Maddie kept us on top!! Ava played the game of her dream today and made some magnificent saves with some needing her to be nimble and quick to get back to her feet! She delivered in every way today!! So much so that Coach Gab granted her a god level rating!!
Quarter four and Deanshanger were desperate for a goal!! What they didn’t realise was the strength of the team they were playing against!! The girls in the final quarter stood strong like sisters in arms, protecting their goal and making many a strong tackle!! The ball continued to break nicely but Deanshanger had put their best player in defence making plenty of last ditch tackles!! This didn’t phase super striker Rosie though who maintained pressure on the keeper, nicked the ball and slotted it straight past her!! It was so slick that Gab and Jethro hadn’t realised we had scored until the ball went back to the center point!!
It was pretty safe to say that today’s game has hugely highlighted how far these girls have come in such a short length of time!!
Many thanks to Laura Proctor for the match report.
