Today we travelled away to Hartlepool Pools Youth seeing us play our 10th league game of the season which marks our half way point.

The game started well for both sides seeing a good physical battle between the two teams. Hartlepool were strong in the air and this made for a very much lifted game. We tried where possible to get the ball down on the ground but found it quite difficult to get in much of a momentum.

We took the lead in the 31st minute seeing centre half Robbo win the ball back in midfield and sent forward to Charlene in the box. Char had a shot which was saved by the Pools keeper. The palmed away ball fell to striker Mel who finished it superbly with a left footed strike.

We entered the half time break with a one goal lead.

The second half started with Pools seeming to be on the attack at our goal. We defended well and countered when we had the chance. In the 55th minute of play Hartlepool broke seeing their winger play a ball forward for their striker to run onto. Centre half Abbie done excellent to get to the ball and shield it out for a goal kick. Unfortunately the referee made a very bad judgement call and awarded a corner ball. The ball whipped in saw it fall to a polls player who struck the ball sending it towards the back of the net. It hit the hand of full back Ellen keeping it out and a penalty was awarded. Keeper Charlie got to the ball but didn’t quite enough on it and the score became levelled again.

We battled back hard and attacked at the Pools goal. Ellie was fouled on the edge of the box seeing a free kick awarded in the 60th minute. Ellie whipped in a superb free kick which saw a Pools defender head it backwards. Winger Zarr raced in to pick up the loose ball and fired it across the goal where Char ran in and tapped it in to put us back in the lead.

Less than 5 minutes later a pools winger intercepted our goal kick catching us out on a quick counter attack and grabbed back the equaliser.

The remainder of the game saw chances at both sides with the final whistle seeing us take a point each.

Player of the match today was awarded to Steph for her excellent work rate from start to finish. She was a rock at the back dealing very well with the Hartlepool forwards.

Overall, not a great performance by us as a team but spells of great football when we were able to keep the ball on the floor.