Morpeth Ladies 1st XI v Lancaster Ladies 1st X1
Result: 2-1
Scorers: Smith, Hagan
MOM: Brooke Cully
AOM: Ciara Corbett
Team: Janice Rose; Karen Hindmarch;Lyn Watkins; Cara Smith; Emma Bell;Sally Bryson;Nicky Bowler(c); Brooke Cully; Robyn Pick; Ciara Corbett; Dani Hagan; Arran O’Mahony; Emma Gibson.
On a lovely autumn day, Morpeth Ladies went into this encounter determined to win on two levels – firstly, to get over last week’s disappointing loss, and secondly to get revenge for losing to the opposition home and away last year.
The away side started positively and for the first 10 minutes dominated possession. However, crucially much of their ball retention was on the half way line rather than in front of goal.
Gradually Morpeth started to gauge the situation and began to bring up their plays through some sheer hard graft – with the forwards in particular covering a lot of ground to provide the first line of defence.
Eventually a short corner was won. Bellreceived the ball and shot goalward. The keeper was up to the challenge but could only parry to Bowler. Amazingly theLancasternetkeeper managed to keep the lifting ball out despite saving the ball from a prone position. Unluckily for her, the second shot rebounded to one in green and gold and Smith was able to hit home for her first goal with her new club.
Morpeth continued to pour forward and O’Mahony’s tireless pressure was rewarded with the ball breaking to her fellow forward. Hagan didn’t squander the opportunity. She jinked past a couple of defenders on the left and drove across the face of goal. Just when it looked like the opportunity had been scorned, she hit an angular shot on the run. She was rewarded with the reassuring clunk of the backboard and after 20 minutes the home side was two to the good.
Apparently cruising though, Morpeth seemed to lose their way a bit and allowedLancasterto get a bit of momentum. Rose was increasingly pulled into action and despite making a good save to keep a rising shot from the left winger out, the rebound fell to their centre forward. From a couple of yards out, she deflected the ball back toward goal and much to the anguish of the home team, the ball trickled off the far post to cross the line.
The second half started with the home side realising they had a game on their hands. Indeed, the vast majority of the half was spent on the back foot in their own defensive half. To their credit, Morpeth did not buckle and indeed for all their lack of territory gave very few goal-scoring opportunities away. Cully, playing only in her second match for the Club, in particular, showed a bit of maturity in sticking to the fundamentals of solid tackling.
Frustration started to creep in and as a resultLancasterstarted to lose their shape. Nonetheless the last seven or eight minutes were a bit fraught with Morpeth simply determined to keep them at bay. And so it proved, a lot of hard work and robust defence management won out and another three points were secured.
