On Saturday the Tigers welcomed Newport Swans to Van Dyke.
As with recent weeks, straight from the kick off the Tigers came flying out of the blocks and completely dominated the entire first quarter, playing some of their best football of the season.
The game was only a few minutes in when a driving run was clinically finished into the bottom corner by Carey.
Moments later, another driving run and cross, this time by Noomi, was finished off by Carey for her second goal of the match.
Newport were far from the worst side we’ve played this season, in fact, they would give most sides troublesome periods, however, the backline of Caitlin and Nyla stamped out every Newport attack and for the first quarter Poppy was mainly a spectator.
Changes were made in the second quarter with Carey and Caitlin being replaced by Jess and Tilly, these changes made little difference to the Tigers dominance and it wasn’t long before Marni (Malcom) finished off another team move to make the score 3-0.
Midway through the 2nd quarter Marni decided to channel her inner Lionel Messi and scored one of (if not the) goals of the season. Picking the ball up out wide (just in our half) Marni chopped in and out through 3 opposing players, then, when faced up to the last defender, Marni drove past her and slammed the ball into the bottom corner of the goal. Wow!
Further chances came and went for the Tigers, but they saw out the remainder of the quarter very comfortably.
4-0 Tigers at Half Time
With an unchanged team the Tigers started the third quarter a little slowly, this seemed to rouse their opponents who all of a sudden started to look dangerous. But for alert keeping by Poppy, who was very quickly off of her line on several occasions, the Tigers may have succumbed to the Newport pressure.
However, the pressure eventually told and from a corner the Newport number 10 slammed the ball home. Then almost instantly, from another cross the Newport attacker found herself all alone at the back post and but for a fantastic save by Poppy, Newport would have had a second.
Changes were made half way through the quarter with Carey and Caitlin replacing Jess and Tilly and towards the end of the quarter, another Tigers attack broke to Noomi who finished confidently into then bottom corner (goal 48).
The final quarter was quite simply the best quarter of football I’ve seen the Tigers play. The front three of Marni, Noomi and Carey were absolutely everywhere and the defensive backline of Nyla and Caitlin were destructive, unmovable and fierce.
There was only one real contentious moment and that was when the referee disallowed Carey’s hat trick goal for an undisclosed reason (ha-ha).
Shortly after, a quick throw by Marni to Carey who beat the last defender and delivered the cross into the box for Noomi to finish (goal 49).
Goal number 50 was only a few minutes away and as usual Noomi finished off a Tigers attack clinically for her hat trick, what an achievement. 50 goals in your debut season whilst playing a large part of the season in defence is a truly an amazing achievement, well done Noomi!
There was still time for one more Tigers goal. A quick throw into Marni left her through on goal to finish clinically again for her hat trick. That was goal number 20 for Marni, another fantastic achievement.
Todays game was a fantastic performance which saw two players hit scoring milestones.
Well done Tigers, onwards and upwards to regain our cup!
POM: Marni
Many thanks to Coach Luke for the March report
