Sponsors: Lisa Collins Hair Design and Caring Help at Home Ltd
Squad: Ellie, Ava, Kelsey, Hannah, Mia, Izzy, Ella, Elle, Amy
After our recent excellent cup run, it was back to a league game action with Rugby Town U11s welcoming Coalville to a very warm and sunny Kilsby Lane.
1st Half
Rugby started strongly with a good few attacking pushed up to the Coalville goal. Excellent play from the wing, which continued throughout the game, was one of the highlights of the game.
Hannah and Kelsey had a particularly positive partnership, and Hannah played very well today on the left wing moving from her usual defensive midfield position.
Kelsey always looks dangerous when she gets the ball and the team worked very well to keep her supplied with the ball. Coalville quickly picked up on Kelsey’s speed, and to their credit, marked her very heavily throughout the game.
Coalville displayed very effective counter attacking, something which caught Rugby out on a few occasions. Their strong Number 9 in particular kept Amy very busy in defence. As the first half wore on, Amy recognised the need to watch this player and started to anticipate her movement very well.
Izzy had some very good periods in defence. She shadowed the attacking Coalville players well and her passes out to Hannah on the wing very generally very accurate. Much more thoughtful play today which was good to see.
Hannah delivered some fine corners which were handled well by Coalville. Mia displayed some very clever play in midfield and worked very hard to gain possession and feed some penetrative passes forward to Kelsey and Ava.
Ava was another player who read the game very well today and made some very well thought out and well timed runs forward into space to allow Kelsey an opportunity to pass and work herself forward into a goal threatening space.
Kelsey and Ava really started to team up well in the latter stages of the first half, creating a positive situation for Rugby. Ellie had a very good day in goal and stopped some storming shots on target by Coalville.
Ellie has really benefited from specific goalkeeper training on Friday nights and is proving to be a very good second keeper for when our first keeper is not available.
End to end play, combined with the heat was starting to impact upon Rugby and with relief the half time whistle was heard.
2nd Half
The second half saw some fresh legs in defence with Ella swapping in for Izzy and Elle swapping in for Hannah. The temperature was really rising now and a domineering Coalville side started to show their fitness and determination, Rugby were under a sustained period of pressure from the off.
Elle J came straight into the game, slotting in with Kelsey and both working hard, with quick runs, to get the ball quickly past the Coalville defence and in front of the Coalville goal. I was impressed to see some very effective ball skills from both girls.
Hannah swapped in for a short while as Elle J picked up a bit of an injury, and provided some good throw ins which Rugby made much better use of than in previous week.
