Rutherford Ladies v Penrith Ladies [Friendly]

Today the girls played their first friendly of the 2023/2024 season at home to Penrith Ladies from the league above.

The game started very well seeing us on the constant attack and netting our first goal of the game in the 5th minute of play. It was central midfielder Steph W who received the ball in midfield picking out a pass to Hannah on the left wing. Hannah ran onto the ball driving it into the box and beating the keeper as she was closed with a superb top right corner finish. Great goal and well deserved.

Penrith were a strong team and tested us defensively. Less than a minute after our goal, keeper Charlie pulled off an unbelievable save to keep us ahead of the game.

Our second goal came in the 13th minute of the half from some superb play between Zarr and Hannah seeing Hannah take the ball around the keeper and send it crashing over the line.

The remainder of the half saw a well battled game between the sides with plenty of chances created at both sides. We were unfortunate not to have got atleast another three goals and keeper Charlie certainly kept the clean sheet for us as we entered the half time break with an array of brilliant saves.

The second half saw the management completely change around the team trying people in different positions. The time to do this is, is in pre season friendlies so they can see what works and what doesn't. On this occasion the changes didn't work and our 2-0 lead turned into chasing the game 3-2 to Penrith after 7 minutes of play into the second half.

The team was moved around further and the play settled more on the pitch. We began to look more of a threat again seeing us win a few corners due to the teams pressure. One of these came from some great play from the team where centre half Robbo ran to edge of box oicking up the ball and having a superb shot at goal. The Penrith keeper pulled off an excellent save which went out for a corner. Squeak played in a superb into the 6 yard box seeing the keeper manage to palm it out but striker Hannah responsed well and got her head to ball sending it into the top right corner of the goal. Great goal which came from the teams hard efforts.

The team kept working hard driving forward and defending when needing too. A few minutes after our last goal Jodi received the ball from Mel running down the right wing where she beat her defender and saw striker Hannah free on the edge of the box. She squared the ball across to Hannah who smashed the ball into the bottom left hand corner. Unfortunately the referee called this offside which much of been so touch and go but the goal was disallowed and we soldiered on for the next which came in the 64th minute of play. It was Kirsty who won the ball in midfield and played it out to right winger Sarah. Sarah then played the ball in behind the defence where striker Hannah drove the ball into the box and finished the ball from a very tight angle. Another superb goal.

Penrith broke in the 88th minute of the game managing to grab the equaliser. The team battled hard but time ran out and the game finished 4-4.

Player of the match today was split between Hannah and Charlie. Hannah scored 4 superb goals [2 from left wing and 2 from striker] and was a constant headache for our opposition defence and keeper. Charlie was a rock in between the sticks and certainly kept us in the game with some unbelievable saves.

Overall, lots of positives to take from todays game as well as some learning curves, well done everyone!!