Morpeth v Bedlington Town Wildcats

12 November 2011 

After our convincing win last week, we were up against the same opponents again , this time at their ground. It was a bright sunny morning with little or no breeze but overnight rain had left the pitch soft and the grass wet. The grass was also very long so the ball would be held up on the surface and we would need to strike the ball well and to play it to feet if we were to overcome this problem.

All of our girls were available for this game and Monty appointed Alice as captain for the day to welcome her back after last week's illness; he also sprung a surprise by not naming Moley in goal in order to give her a run out in attack.

After warming up firstly on the zip wire in the play area next to the pitch and then in a more organised session, the players of both sides lined up for a minutes silence in remembrance of those who gave up their lives fighting for their country. This silence was well respected all round the ground, and we were then able to do battle ourselves with the following team:- Demi was in goal with Ellie and George in front of her. Mazie, Amy, Erin and Bella were in the centre leaving Alice and Moley at the sharp end. Caz and Lauren were left to make use of the zip wire until they were needed.

Following the whistle for the start of the first half, Morpeth were on the front foot but their moves were broken down by Ellie and George and it was business as usual with Wildcats on the attack. It did not take long for the scoring to start as Alice latched on to a poor clearance and was able to force the ball past the helpless 'keeper for goal number one.

As anticipated, the ball was stopping very quickly in the long grass of the pitch and Mazie and Bella were able to take advantage although it was difficult to actually run with the ball at their feet. The crosses kept being made however and Alice was unlucky not to add to her first goal when she saw her effort saved by the Morpeth goalkeeper with Moley unable to take advantage of the rebound. The amount of pressure we were exerting was bound to produce more goals and when Mazie met a goal kick she was able to power her way down the right wing before finding Moley with her cross. Moley had loads of time to pick her spot and score to double our advantage.

We were playing with two defenders and while this made us a little bit vulnerable to a breakaway attack, we were more than confident of handling the situation if it arose but it did mean that Demi got an early touch of the ball when she easily gathered a hopeful through ball and set up another Wildcats attack. Bella collected the ball on her wing and was unlucky to see her shot well saved after a good run from her own half. It was then Mazie's turn to run down her wing and centre, this time she found Amy and her shot was too good for the Morpeth goalie who could not stop the ball from crossing the line.

We were rampant at this point and the goalie did very well again to stop an Erin shot, before Bella set off on yet another run and her shot took our total to four without reply. Constant pressure was placed on the Morpeth goal with corner after corner being cleared and Amy saw another of her shots hit the post and away for a goal kick. Amy did however get her reward when she collected a subsequent goal kick and made no mistake by placing her shot being well wide of the goalkeeper. Amy was on a run now and it was no surprise when she ran with the ball at her feet from her own half of the pitch, fought off defenders with her determination and found an excellent shot to round off the play and record her first hat trick for the Wildcats.

Six nil became seven nil when another Bella run saw the Morpeth goal open up in front of her and she scored with the last kick of the first half.

Wildcats had played well on the difficult surface with long grass and an uneven pitch and Monty was pleased with the effort put in by all of our girls. He pointed out that several players were being played out of position to give them more experience, but it is obvious from the sidelines that there is a lot of discipline amongst our players, and the shape of the team is maintained no matter who is playing where……..great to see!

The second half started with Demi remaining in goal, Ellie and George in front of her with Caz slotting in just in front of the defenders. Mazie, Lauren and Bella were there to control the midfield with Moley and Alice up front. Amy and Erin were given a rest at the start of the second half.

The half started in typical Wildcats style with Lauren blasting a free kick just over the bar and she was also involved with our first corner of the half. Lauren's cross was met by Moley's head and when the ball dropped she was the first to react and got her reward when her follow up shot hit the back of the net. (It was also interesting to see Demi leave her own goal line to join the forwards for all corners in the second half)

A Morpeth attack in numbers led to their first corner of the game and it was good to see most of the Wildcats team back in defence to see the ball cleared and back to the other end of the pitch.  We were getting quite a lot of joy in picking up Morpeth goal kicks and setting up attacks from these; Moley gathered one of these kicks by muscling her way past defenders and she left the goalkeeper with the job of picking the ball out of the back of the net for our ninth goal of the game and her own hat trick to match that of Amy.

Moley almost scored again when a good shot was pushed over the bar by the well worked Morpeth goalie. Ellie and George were replaced by Amy and Erin and then Mazie came off leaving us with eight players against the nine of our opponents. While we were shorter on numbers, we were certainly not shorter on goal attempts and a Lauren shot rebounded off the post to Moley who was marginally wide with her follow up attempt. Lauren got the reward that her endeavours deserved when she was given far too much time on the right wing and scored number ten with ease.

At this point, Demi was only nominally playing as goal keeper; she had the gloves on but was playing in midfield most of the time to make up for our lack of numbers. The Morpeth 'keeper saved well from both Bella and Lauren before Alice hit the bar with a great shot and then yet another Lauren shot was well saved.

Demi (our goal keeper remember) then collected the ball in front of goal (Morpeth's goal) and thumped the ball into the net, giving the 'keeper (their 'keeper) no chance at all.

The second half was drawing to a close, and we were seeing lots of off side decisions being made against us, but the off side trap could not prevent the twelfth and final goal of the game. Moley scored her fourth of the game after a sweeping move started at the back by Caz who found Erin with a good ball. Erin in turn sent Lauren away down her wing and her cross fell nicely for Moley to cap a fine goal scoring day for her.

With the final whistle bringing the game to an end, we trooped off the pitch with another satisfying win against last week's opponents and with last week's score matched also. Wildcats had won 12 - 0 to climb the league table.

Morpeth gave the girl of the game award to Erin and Monty's girl of the game was Alice.

Monty was very pleased with the performance of the girls today; the work rate was excellent and the team work was evident again; our players were happy to play wherever they were instructed without fuss and we can now look forward to a home game next week against Cramlington Town who were our first opponents in this league way back in September.

In a week where four of the five top teams in our league were playing each other, this victory has taken us to third with games in hand over the two teams in front of us Montagu and North Fenham Pumas and North Shields). We have Cramlington and Wallsend to play this month before we start a very difficult December and January, but all we can do is keep winning our games and give the other teams something to worry about.

The league table now looks like this.....................very good reading for Wildcats supporters