Denton Town 7 Heyside Clarets 1 (U12's L/Cup)

Wow-top stuff, well impressed today with everyone.

KYLIE - I take it back, you can score goals, but please stop kicking the ball at me ( & you call me a bully).

Just in addition to Rick's report below, their best player was no4, but the young ref., who arrived late and had only just got up, made some strange decisions. Me/Rick gave him a generous 7. Heyside nominated Kay as our player of the match, but I agree with Rick, it was far too close to call, as EVERY GIRL was AMAZING today.

11's - Champions today and in two finals
12's - Top of the League Cup Table
14's - Draw next week and champions, in one semi-final and one final.
Ladies - still in with a shout for the title, but definitely at least runners' up.

Not bad hey!

NIGEL.
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It'll be chocolates all round this Thursday at training for the under 12s following this emphatic result over Heyside Angels Navys - (someone had better remind me - Nigel).

It is quite remarkable that just 8 weeks ago Denton Town were thumped 5-0 by the same opposition; highlighting the rapid progress that the girls have made under the guidance of Amy. The leader is currently taking a well-earned break in Geneva and will return for training this week full of pride as her young starlets made it three out of three in the league cup competition.

Whilst Amy and I take great delight in the recent successes it is the girls themselves who
must take full credit for the way in which they have listened to instructions and applied themselves in the matches.

This threatened to be a potential "banana-skin" fixture as Denton only had a bare 7 players available and no distinguished goalkeeper.

Hannah was an absentee and with Grace and Katie also missing we were reliant on the girls each lasting the entire 40 minutes with no substitutes.
Whilst on the subject may we all wish Grace's grandfather our best and hope he is able to make a speedy recovery. We must pay a huge debt of gratitude to both Kendall and Emily (albeit thanks to some welcome persuasion from Pete and some promise of extra chocolates) for playing a true team role and sharing the duties in the net in Hannah's absence.

Heyside Navys, in fairness, had selection problems of their own to contend with and were severely hampered by having to field just 6 players. Denton were able to take full advantage of this handicap and totally dominated affairs from start to finish. That little menace Kay was voted player of the match by Heyside. She weighed in with yet another hatrick and created the other four just for good measure.

Just over a month ago I wrote on this blog about the ability Kay has and she is now really starting to show her true potential. She clearly has an eye for goal but in addition she is very clever, quick and surprisingly, considering her size, has strength in abundance. It was a typical strikers' hatrick, making it 2-0 when she latched onto Lauren's pass to fire past the keeper with real power, 5-0 after darting through the defence to finish stylishly from Kylie's assist and adding the coup de gras with the final goal from another Lauren through-ball.

Lauren, herself, was in dazzling form and is looking extremely confident in her own ability at present. This was apparent by the manner in which she opened the scoring fete,
taking just one touch to smash Kay's right wing cross into the top corner of the Heyside net despite the acute angle. She so nearly repeated the accomplishment with a mirror effort just moments later which flew over the bar having again linked well with Kay. The same combination were more successful after the break when Lauren showed exemplary control to take Kay's through-pass into the area and beat the keeper at her near post; making the scores 4-0 at that juncture. Lauren deserved a hatrick herself having been full of tricks and treats all morning but was cruelly denied the accolade when another low drive struck the foot of the post.

The other player to find the target was Kylie much to the embarrassment of Nigel who in the build-up to kick-off had implied that she was incapable of scoring!! Well done Nigel this was all the incentive Kylie needed (I knew it would work - honest - Nigel), and she struck twice just to prove the first was no fluke. This was unarguably the best I have seen Kylie play and this despite suffering with illness leading up to the contest. I was slightly critical of Kylie in training this week for sometimes "ball-watching" and failing to move off the ball but she put any doubt to rest with her performance today as she never stopped running for the entirety. I didn't quite realise just how feisty she can be too as she threw herself into numerous challenges and won possession back with her whole-hearted approach.

In the centre of midfield Georgia played a "blinder". With Kendall having to help out as an emergency goalkeeper in the opening half I explained to Georgia that her contribution to the game was absolutely vital - and so it proved. Whilst she did not feature amongst the goalscorers she was pivotal in everything that Denton created and was desperately unlucky not to have found the net with a couple of long-range strikes early on. Emily, at the back, was rock solid as usual and came close to emulating her sensational goal from the previous round of fixtures with another attempt that the keeper just managed to claw away and not to be outdone, Teah also threatened to get in on the act with a rare strike of her own which again had the Heyside keeper scrambling across her line to save. These two, along with their captain, Kendall, in the second half continued their improved form and gave the opposition attack very little space to cause
problems.

Rick's Player of the Match: Too close to call; each and every one of the girls were sensational.
A big thank you to Chloe W from the under 14 girls for her assistance today on the touch line and in warming Kendall up before the kick-off.

Congratulations to the Under 11's who have clinched the title today.

RICK.