Today we faced top of the table team Darlington Spraire Ladies away at there gorund. The pitch was heavy and we travelled with a mimimal squad due to injuries and work. Never the less the girls battled hard against this top side.
We took the lead after 15 minutes of play with a terrific goal from Scott, seeing her spot the Darlington keeper off her line and lobbed the keeper with a fantastic and much needed goal. Darlington fought back hard but with no reward. They were awarded a penalty in the 41st minute but superstar keeper Brown pulled off a class save keeping us in the lead. Unfortantely, the lead didn't last long and Darlington found the equaliser in the 43rd minute.
Half time came and the girls had a well earned break. They had give their all in the first half and were running on empty. Darlington had a squad of around 20 players and we travelled with 14 so the heavy pitch and first half performance definately affected our performance in the second half. From the off Darlington came at us and scored 2 quick goals. We hunted hard for another goal eventually finding it with a terrific cross from Fairbairn finding Scott's head who fired the ball past the Darlington keeper.
Darlington scored another two goals not long after our second goal and no matter how hard we tried we couldn't manage to convert anymore chances. We really pressured and won corner after corner but time ran out and the game fiinished 5-2 to Darlington.
Player of the match today was awarded to Brown for her fantastic effort and performance in goal from start to finish. There was a clear and huge improvement in Browns handling, kicking and positioning and she did awesome saving what was a well taken penalty.
Hard luck for the girls and very unlucky to have so many players missing on the week we faced top of the league but we now look forward to continuing to work hard to gain a top two finish and to hopefully progress through the semi finals of the league cup to enter the Final for the second year running.