Welton 5-a-side Tournament

 

U13 Girls 

 

Welton, Lincoln

 

Sunday June 22nd 2008

 

We took two teams of six to the tournament - Grantham Blue and Grantham black.

 

We arrived in Welton for a 10.30am Kick-off in glorious sunshine,but to say it was windy is an understatement - it was a full-on gale!

 

There were originally 9 teams in the tournament, but one dropped out on the day, which messed the programme up a little.

 

There were good facilities and the competition was well organised with some 320 girls from all age groups present on the day .

 

As this venue is North Lincoln we found ourselves playing against teams from the South Humberside league plus some from the Mid-Lincs league that we play in - so we only knew half of them.

 

The tournament format consisted of 8 teams all playing each other once, with the top four playing a knock out semi-final play-off and then a final.

 

3 points for a win, 2 for a score draw and 1 for a no-score draw. 

 

I managed the "Blacks" and my assistant - trainee teacher, Sam Coy took control of the "Blues" which was made up of mainly new players to the club with Jessie Slater as Captain.

 

Our first game was a tentative 0-0 affair against the blue team.

 

Our second and third games were both won 1-0 against Solar Vixens and Lincoln Griffins, with a goal in each from Kirstie Moffat, who played well on the right.

 

We then won 2-0 against Lincoln Moorlands, one of our adversaries from last season. The goals came from Akvile Gerbenyte and Becky Hogben, who was excellent on the left. 

 

Next game we played the hosts - Welton, and managed a 0-0 draw, with the same result in the next game against Inter Priory.

 

Our last game of the league was against Scunthorpe united.

 

Foolishly I was discussing the fact that we had not conceded a goal, and would you believe it? - yep they scored!

 

 

Annie Walton, our superb Captain and central defender, went to close down, as the opposition were attacking goal with another player overlapping.

Unfortunately she slipped, allowing the player to run on and fire past Poppy Hallam in goal.

As there were two players unopposed it was easy to watch the wrong one - as she did. 

Not wanting to lose - the girls put in an enormous effort to equalise and hit the post and crossbar a couple of times before Becky scored a brilliant solo effort to bring the scores even - where it stayed.

 

Abbie Weatherstone had joined the squad late, and after Lottie Bates had dropped out due to illness. She was an able substitute, coming on for all of the forward players, or starting in their stead throughout the tournament (Abbie plays on the right - but the others are interchangeable).

 

We finished top of the table on 14 points, followed by Scunthorpe on 11 and Welton and Solar on 10 each. Grantham Blues had finished on 4 points, with an excellent report from Sam Coy, on Amelia Stockwell, the Blues Goalkeeper who received their Managers "Player of the Tournament" award. The blues team didn't seem to get going, but I did notice some good things and we'll work on the rest in training

 

We played Solar Vixens in the semi-final and won 2-0 with goals from Akvile and another from Becky, who was now playing with a bruised knee, but warming to the task.

 

This set up a final encounter with Scunthorpe, who had been the only team to score against us, and were our nearest rivals in the league.

 

Having watched the drama of a penalty shootout between Welton and Scunthorpe in the other semi, Poppy was very keen for this not to happen to us!

 

When it was still 0-0 at full time she expected this to be the case and was most relieved when it went to 4 minutes of extra time.

 

All of the outfield players are to be commended for their excellent passing and moving off the ball, they did this especially well in this game, and it was this and her brilliant skill on the ball which lead to Becky getting the winning goal, scoring low under the keeper having twice wrong footed the opposing defending player!

 

Becky received my Managers "Player of the Tournament" award for the black team, for her great effort. 

 

We are hoping to get in at least one more tournament and two or three friendlies before the start of the new season in the Mid-Lincs league.