Roller coaster season continues

Sils L1’s made the short trip across Solihull to take on Solihull Blossomfields 2’s in the latest seasons fixture but without 4 of their more seasoned players this was going to be a tough call in a match that should have been winnable. Blossomfield are a strong structured outfit who had been finding points difficult to come by in recent weeks. Sils were positive from the start and were starting to play the ball around well finding plenty of space down the flanks, only when they drove down the middle did they come across problems with Blossomfield being set very strong within this area. The game was evenly poised for the first ten minutes or so but Bloss started to gain more possession and a goal eventually came as it was deflected in through a melee of legs.

Stunned, Sils gathered themselves and started to try and take the game to Bloss but were finding progress difficult. By this time Bloss had manged to find that their strong right hand side was overpowering the Sils left and were making constant inroads down this area. The defence was becoming much more busier and Bloss once again broke into the D with their attacker unleashing an Exocet undercut of a shot destined for the top corner of the net until goalkeeper Joanne Brett expertly padded it down and then outran two forwards to dispatch the ball out of play. With Brett commanding the D and marshalling her hard working centreback pairing of Kate Huntington and Ali Leeke they were somehow managing to keep the blue horde at bay. Short corners were traded without seriously troubling either goal and Sils did have the odd foray into the Bloss 25 with Georgia Smith having the best chance although not quite being able to convert her one on one chance with the keeper. The score remained at 0:1 until half time.

The second half started well and from a short corner Frankie Levey smashed the ball against the bar and although bundled in the play was stopped for an alleged infringement. Bloss collected themselves from this shock and started to move the ball around well slicing through Sils and onto the backline which was working over time trying to repel the frequent onslaughts. As the ball was pushed out to midfield Samantha Cooper, who was leading like a true Captain, was trying to stabilise play and get things moving difficulty but found making any direct threat to the goal difficult with a congested midfield area and lack of movement to lay off the ball.

Midway through the second half Sils defence were again repelling attacks and as a shot came in Jo Brett made an outstanding save down at her near post and as the ball was half cleared she miraculously manged to fling herself full length of the goal to miraculously turn a certain goal bound effort around the post much to the amazement of the whole ground receiving rapturous applause in the process. Bloss’s attacking exploits did leave them exposed and Naomi Ennis found space to charge through on the left and pushed a perfect pass into the D for someone to finish but alas no one was supporting or following up the play and it therefore came to nothing. Bloss again composed themselves and launched a further series of attacks and eventually with the defence tiring they found a way through to increase their lead. If this was not bad enough Sils seemed to go asleep as immediately Bloss took charge and sliced through the team with few challenges being made and despite another dive from Brett they lifted the ball over her dive to seal victory.
The statistics quite rightly show the problem with Sils having only scored 11 goals this season and the majority of those coming from midfield, oh for a 20 goal a season centre forward. Onwards and upwards though next weeks game is against high scoring Birmingham University, should be fun!

MoM: Joanne Brett for a series of outstanding and at time miraculous saves throughout the match.
DoD: Ali Leeke, who forgot her white shirt and was on the verge of raiding the school’s lost property box before some kind soul came to her aid.