Darlington FC Women v Rutherford Ladies

Today we played Darlington FC Women away from home. Darlington currently sitting in the top 3 of the table and us in 8th was sure to be a tough game. The weather was awful seeing another storm hit the county which made for extremely wet and windy conditions.

The game started well for the home team seeing them be very much on top of the game for the first 20 minutes of play, really attacking at us. We defended well as a team seeing keeper Charlie and our back four work extremely hard to keep them out.

The team began to find their feet and relax more on the ball after this initial poor spell. The pressure at the Darlington goal began and it wasn't long before we netted the first goal of the game. In the 30th minute of play striker Mel received the ball running it up the right side of the pitch and crossing it into the box. Partner striker Alex ran in to attack the ball just missing it. The ball kept travelling and left winger Ellie who made a great run into the box sent it crashing into the bottom left corner of the goal to give us the lead. Less than a minute later we were on the attack again this time it was a superb ball from striker Alex finding Mels feet. Mel turned and with pressure from a Darlington defender on her she struck the ball with a superb effort seeing it go crashing into the top right corner of the goal. Two superb team goals which allowed us to settle for the remainder of the half.

The second half saw a good battle between the two sides in awful conditions with the away team staying more on top and creating the better chances. Credit to the Darlington keeper who pulled off a few great saves to keep the score down. Despite Darlington's efforts the game ended 2-0 to us and a well earned 3 points were added to the table.

Player of the match today was awarded to captain Steph G for her excellent work rate and performance at centre half. She worked her socks off to ensure a clean sheet was kept and motivated her team to the very final whistle. Well done Skipper.

Overall, not the best team performance but the girls worked hard to steal the game against a top team and bagged themselves a very impressive 3 points. Well done girls.