Jan 20, 2011

On Monday 17th the Under 16 girls team played in the English Schools competition in an away match to Ormskirk High School who we know from previous encouters are a very strong team. We knew the challenge ahead and whilst mindful that we sometimes suffer from our opponents getting early leads we were the most focused I have seen all season.

We took an early lead with Faye Fitzsimmons scoring within 15 mins. The surge in confidence saw Shannon Beckwith quickly net another goal.

In the second half with the sun against us Ormskirk scored an early goal putting pressure on us to maintain our lead. The players worked hard and kept pressing as a team with another break when Faye managed to score her second giving us time to relax! From here we then continued to dominate and in the last minutes of the game Rebecca Ainscough whipped in a fantastic cross/shot, which ended up in the top corner!

The team are now through to the quarter finals of the English Schools Competition! They are currently the holders of the U15 title so we're aiming for no less than a double!

The U14 girls then played on Wed 19th January in away game at Wirral Grammar School.

This was a fantastic game with nail biting moments. We took the lead early on with a goal from Emma Finnegan. Wirral played strongly, making the most of their height and strength advantage, but we outmatched them with our skill. We scored again to make it 2-0 thanks to Faye Bryson. Wirral managed to score just before the second half and began to put the pressure on. One of our defenders then had to be substituted due to injury which seemed to knock our confidence as shortly after Wirral scored again to level the match at 2-2!

This was a knock out competition so it was all or nothing and we moved everyone around to ensure we had attacking strength and our players battled hard. We then had a break with a great cross from Megan Harrison and Rea Clark slotted the ball home. Sadly celebrations were curtailed by the offside call. So back we went again with Faye Bryson whipping in some impressive crosses and in the last 3 minutes of the game with luck on our side we scored a winner! The team are now through to the Merseyside Schools' Semi Final.

We wish all the players the very best of luck.