Puma’s kicked off the tournament with a fairly routine 2-0 win, in a typically quiet opening game, conscious of the long evening ahead. Nerves were settled after a few minutes when the ball was worked to Amelie who arrowed a sweet strike into the bottom corner from distance. The game was wrapped up later in the game with a neat finish from Emily which spun in off the post.
The girls played out a 0-0 draw in the second game, still waiting to find their rhythm and struggling to put their passing game together. The match played out with little incident.
Puma’s faced Cheltenham Town’s academy team in their last group game. Cheltenham proved to be a strong, powerful team who dominated the first half and deservedly took the lead with a strong strike from range. However, Puma’s finally seemed to get a foothold in the game against their toughest opponents and were unfortunate not to find an equaliser. Encouragingly, they seemed to be growing into the tournament and finding their form heading into the next round.
After the group stages, it was evident this was a high quality tournament with some strong teams and players with experience at playing at a high level, with many travelling some distance to compete.
With second spot secured, Puma’s went through to the winners half of the competition, resulting in a semi-final involving the top 2 from both groups. The girls put in a dominant display in the semi-final, with some of their best football in the tournament and creating numerous chances. Unfortunately the goal the performance deserved proved elusive as the game ended goalless and headed to penalties. After 4 top quality penalties each, Maddie clawed a “sudden-death” penalty from hitting the top corner, tipping the ball over the bar, handing over to her sister Grace to smash in the winner and send Puma’s through to the final.
Interestingly, all 4 teams from Puma’s group won their level of semi-final, adding more gloss to the achievements of battling through to the winners final of a strong tournament.
The cup final opponents were Cheltenham Town, our adversaries from the group stage, who seemed confident of repeating their group stage victory and expectant of trophy success, as the teams warmed up. However, Puma’s had other ideas. From the first whistle, it is hard to describe just how calm, confident, brave, strong and generally outstanding the whole squad performed. They completely dominated the game with some of the best passing seen at this level. They left the opposition chasing shadows and created chance after chance after chance. Out of the blue and very much against the run of play, a loose ball fell to their forward who smashed in a trademark strike into the top corner. It was a cruel blow, leaving some sensing another opportunity slipping through the fingers, with so little time in these tournament matches. However, when others might put their heads down, the goal seemed to increase the determination amongst the whole squad. They continued creating chances which went begging. Then, with less than a minute left Blythe found herself in the left corner, evading challenges and sweeping an arching left foot cross through a melee of players to the back post. Sensing the cross, Allegra started a run from deep, sprinting to meet the inch perfect cross with a smashing half volley on the stretch into the bottom corner. Elation! The dream was still alive! It was no less than an outstanding performance deserved and shortly after, the full time whistle signalled the tournament would be decided by penalties. Once again, the bravery of the girls all wanting to take a penalty was testament to their confidence and determination. With Cheltenham going first and scoring both their first two, Emily and Allegra both stepped up and smashed in their penalties. Cheltenham then crashed the bar before our illustrious Blythe, leading by example throughout, aptly stepped up to smash in the decider to clinch the trophy and start the celebrations. Make no mistake, this was a proper team performance throughout the tournament and it was really good to see how together the girls were, whether stood on the side cheering on or on the pitch playing, they were all so supportive of each other. What a great team to be part of! Special mention to Kingy for inspiring and motivating from the touchline.
Some of the quotes of the day:
“What a final. Each and every one of your girls gave us everything in that match and came out deserved winners”
“Yesterday was my best ever moment in football!!! All the girls hard work came to fruition”
“What a final. To turn it around and play the best game I’ve seen in grass roots football. To put on THAT display in a final. They played with no fear.”
