Hebburn Town FC Women v Rutherford Ladies

Today we played Hebburn Town FC Women away from home. After a game in the morning from the men’s Sunday league side it was fair to say the pitch was extremely heavy.

The wind was very strong which impacted the game for both teams. The first half saw the wind on Hebburns side which helped with their long balls. Thankfully our keeper and defence worked hard and dealt well with the pressure this brought. Our first half performance was quite poor as a team with the wind being a factor in this. Despite this poor start we netted the first goal of the game in the 31st minute of play. It was central midfielder Jodi who played the ball forward to striker Mel. Mel drove the ball into the box and struck it across the keeper sending it crash into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. This gave us the 1-0 lead as we entered the half time break.

The second half the wind was far more kind to us which allowed our performance to improve from the first.

In the 55th minute Hebburn broke on the counter attack. Full back Squeak managed to intercept but this resulted in a corner kick given. Hebburn scored from this corner levelling the score line.

The girls worked hard looking for their second goal to take the lead again. This was found in the 61st minute after a free kick was awarded for a foul around 25 yards from goal. Midfield Steph W stepped up to take the kick being told from coach Micky to go for goal. She did exactly that and sent the ball crashing into the top left hand corner of the goal. A superb effort.

In the 72nd minute striker Alex played the ball through to winger Emma who played it first time to striker Mel. Mel drove the ball towards goal striking the ball with force and sending it across the keeper and into the bottom left hand corner of the goal.

The final goal of the game came in the 78th minute with a great cross put in from winger Emma finding striker Mel’s head. A superb header finish by Mel saw her with her well deserved hattrick.

Overall, not the best team performance especially in the first half which picked up in the second but the team worked hard despite tough conditions and came out with the well earned 3 points.

Player of the match was awarded to Ellie for her brilliant effort and work-rate in the middle of the pitch. A new position found for her which she really enjoyed and brought out the best in her. Well done Ellie.