DINNINGTON TOWN v ABBEY LANE 12/1/08

[Craig Millward]

DINNINGTON TOWN (0) v ABBEY LANE (3)
GOALSCORERS - JOANNE MAKINSON (1), OLIVIA NOTEMAN (2)
GIRL OF THE GAME - OLIVIA NOTEMAN


MATCH REPORT

Abbey Lane Girls U12's travelled to Dinnington Town with only twelve fit players, in partciular our inspirational play maker and goal machine Em Allen sidelined through illnes.
There was a little shuffling of positions to arrange before kick off, but it had to be business as usual if we were to carry on with our great form, even though the girls had not had a game for four/five weeks.
The game kicked off in quite scrappy fashion, with both teams chasing the ball and there seemed to be no real shape to the teams. With fifteen minutes gone Abbey Lane started to look more composed and started to play more fluent football, but still the final ball was letting them down. With twenty minutes gone Abbey Lane finally took the lead, a freekick was awarded on the edge of the area, NOTEMAN fired in a great shot that was only parried out by the Dinnington keeper, our other goal machine MAKINSON was quick to pounce forcing the ball home. This gave the team the lift they needed, and the whole team seemed to settle down. It was good to see that even with out our leading goalscorer, other players had started to take the lead and were commanding areas of the field that were new to them.

Half time drew upon us, i told the girls they needed to believe in themselves a little more and be more accurate with the passing if we wanted to go on to win this game, as i thought Dinnington were a very organised team that play attractive football.

The second half kicked off, and Abbey Lane showed they meant business going very close in the early minutes to extending their lead. Midway through the second half Abbey Lane went 2-0 up, with a solo goal from the top drawer. The ball was collected by NOTEMAN just inside the Dinnington half, with a bit of encouragement to keep going, she took on four maybe five players and placed the ball to the keepers right to finish off a great run. This was a brilliant goal from a girl who is really a key member of the team, as she covers the whole pitch and still has plenty of energy left. Abbey Lane were now getting well on top of this game and were constantly on the attack, a great save by the Dinnington Town keeper at the feet of ROBINSON denied Abbey Lane another goal. The Abbey Lane keeper didn't have a great deal to do, but when she was called upon she was equal to the challenge, the defence stood strong and the midfield were very creative feeding balls for the strikers. Abbey Lane went 3-0 up after a penalty was awarded with five minutes to go. With some strong attacking play Abbey Lane were bombarding the Dinnington Town goal mouth, when a shot on goal was hand balled in the area, up stepped NOTEMAN to fire the ball in the back of the net.

This was a great game of football to watch, i was proud of the girls attitude to the game, barring the first ten minutes. Dinnington Town to me are possibly one of the better footballing sides in our division and i am mystified by their league position, as both games against them this season have been tough.
Alltogether this was an excellent performance by the girls after such a long layoff, and it was good to see some of the players standing up and being counted with strong performances.