The Sils started well, passing the ball around confidently, and mounted early pressure on the Harborne goal which paid dividends as Charlotte Harmer was able to force home from close range. However, as the half progressed, Harborne packed the centre of the pitch, and made things harder for Sils to play their passing game. At half-time, a constructive team talk led to a more assured second half performance. Goals came from Sofia Cusack, who scored the first of her 3 goals soon after the restart, and then Lauren Hobday showed some lovely skills to notch the team's third. The team had a momentary lapse when they seemingly forgot that they had to mark, which allowed Harborne to get back to 3-1, scoring on the break before Cusack scored her second and third and Priya Majevadia rounded off the scoring from close range.

Old Silhillians U14 Girls 2 - 3 Banbury U14 Girls

Banbury dispatched Harborne 8-0 in their match, so Sils knew they were up against some tough opposition. The visiting Banbury side started brightly and it was perhaps slightly against the run of play that Sils took the lead, Georgina Dalby showing deft skills to control a Cusack cross and fire home. Banbury upped their game, and equalised just before half-time to mean the second half was going to remain a very tight encounter.

Banbury took the all-important lead firing home from a PC, before within minutes, the ball was down the other end and Dalby scored her second, this time a reverse stick cross-shot was deflected home by the GK under pressure from Lauren Hobday. Unfortunately, the Sils win was not to be, and Banbury took their turn to take the ball up the other end of the pitch and score the winning third goal.

A great game between two well-matched teams, and the girls will look forward to getting their revenge when they play Banbury again in the New Year. Having said that, the girls should take great pride on giving an opposition who looked to be mainly U14s a great game when much of our team was U13. Thanks to Matt Fell for his coaching, and all the parents for their support,

Match details

Match date

Sun 23 Nov 2014

Kickoff

14:30

Meet time

13:55

Location

The Silhillians Sports Club

Instructions

Please wear maroon tops, navy socks but bring with you a white top if you have one in case of kit clashes.
Also - as always with this competition there is a need for a goalkeeper to play or the team will have to withdraw. Any suggestions for players from outside the sils will be gratefully received, however if none are forthcoming, we will be asking for volunteers from within the squad.

Team overview