Gateshead Leam Rangers Ladies v Rutherford Ladies

The girls travelled away to Leam Rangers today in our second league game of the season. The weeks worth of breaks due to weather cancellations and no scheduled fixtures put us behind most teams in the league.

The game started well for us seeing us attack and pressure at Leams goal right from the off. We hit the cross bar and had a number of other great chances but our opposing defenders and goal keeper kept us out. In the 11th minute totally against the run of play Leam stole the ball in midfield and scored their first goal of the game. This goal spurred us on to convert one of our many chances.

In the 29th minute of play Leah made a tremendous run towards goal with the ball at her feet, she was fouled and brought to the floor where we were deservingly awarded a penalty. Leah took the penalty and sent it crashing into the top left hand corner. This spurred the team on and in the 35th minute of play we scored our second goal of the game. It was Leah who played through a superb ball to Crid slipping the ball past the keeper with ease. Leam fought back hard and got the equaliser in the 37th minute.

Both teams battled hard for the remainder of the half but it was us that managed to get the goal. Once again it was Leah who played in a terrific cross finding Crid who sent the ball crashing past the Leam keeper.

The weather conditions were awful and the girls tried their best to stay warm during the half time break.

The second half saw a great start from our girls really battling hard and creating brilliant chances. Leam done well to throw themselves in front of every shot keeping us out time after time. We were really pressuring at them and causing them to panic and bicker amongst themselves. All of a sudden in the 65th minute of play Leam won the ball and managed to score completely against the run of play. This dropped the teams heads and allowed our opponents to get on top of the game.

Leam netted again in the 75th minute of play. The girls battled hard and began getting back on top creating chance after chance. Their keeper pulled off a brilliant double save in the dying seconds of the game helping them hold on the win.

The referee made a lot of controversial decisions a lot of which were against us which had a big impact on the game especially towards the remainder of game time seeing our striker Mel denied a penalty after being brought down in the box.

A disappointing defeat considering how many chances we created especially compared to our opponents. However we will learn from today's mistakes and continue to improve going forward.

Player of the match today was awarded to Rachael for her brilliant and hardworking performance from start to finish.

Well done to all the team for battling hard in todays awful conditions and with everything that went against them. Roll on next weeks game ⚽️