First match of new year!!

The first match of the new year was on a sunny and dry but very cold Sunday!!

We had a small team of ten but went out with great drive and determination..( the opposition had 8 however one was our own Wendy and some of theirs were their higher team players so we were evenly matched).

The first half was evenly matched with the Sils under pressure in the defence. Good defending by Lauren Clark, Olivia Timmins , Helen Thomas and Sandra Rowland kept the sils in the game. Both Helen Thomas and Sandra Rowland did great saves in the absence of a goalie. And a short corner was well cleared.
Great runs from Georgia Smith, Georgina Dalby and Izzie Smith kept the play moving up the pitch. Supported superbly by Issie Thomas passing wide and tactically.
Stratford had a second corner which was cleared then a second strike at goal cleared well by Sandra Rowland
Olivia Timmins and Lauren Clark worked hard passing up the wings and relentlessly defending. Great stops and strong clearing hits by Helen ensured we went into half time 0-0.

The sils were immediately under pressure with difficulty clearing to the mids.However the mids continued to work hard with Tara Ackroyd, Issie Thomas and Izzie Smith all working exceptionally hard covering a lot of ground to keep the ball midfield but just unable to push through to the forwards.
The pressure continued on the defence with Issie Thomas coming back to defend breaking right and passing through to Georgina Dalby in the centre allowing the sils to put pressure on stratfords defence. Issie Thomas kept the pressure on in the mid trying to break forward. The pressure continued on the sils defence but stratford gained control and a solid strike saw the sils concede a goal.
The sils pushed forward again but were unable to gain control.
A great hit out from Helen Thomas to Georgina Dalby gave a strong push forward with runs from Izzie Smith and Georgia Smith who had a chance of goal. But we're unable to score.

Pressure again by the sils with a pass into the D by Issie Thomas gave Izzie Smith a shot on goal with Georgia Smith making contact to ensure a goal in the last 10 seconds!!

Great result as teams were well matched!

Player of the match is shared between 3:

Issie Thomas
Issie Smith
Sandra. Rowland

Thanks to Lisa smith for the match report from Helen Thomas