It was certainly going to be a competitive match

The fixture between the top two teams in Division 2 was certainly going to be a competitive match. For the first 15 minutes Bury & Elton had the upper hand and seem to dominate play and possession with ease. Stockport's defence of Gemma Cook, Helen Elcock, Sally Fort and Ceri Jones soaked up the pressure and limited the opposition's chances to just a few shots which all went wide of the post. Midway through the first half, Stockport started to find their stride and were stringing together one-touch passes through the midfield, moving the ball quickly and isolating the opposition defence. The first Stockport chance on goal came when right winger, Sam Piggin picked up a pass between the Bury & Elton defenders and got herself one-on-one against the keeper. Unluckily for Sam the goalie saved. However, it was only a few minutes later, when Charlie Sim's cross from a long corner had the opposition defence undone again, and this time their goalie could do nothing about Clare Atherton's shot into the corner of the goal to put Stockport 1-0 up.

Stockport had plenty of defending to do at the other end, including a succession of penalty corners. The Bury & Elton routines looked well worked but super-goalie Jeanne Woolston stopped them all, and defender Gemma Cook was on hand to make sure there were no rebounds for the opposition to profit from. At the half-time whistle Stockport had managed to hold on to their slender lead.

The second half was end-to-end play as Bury & Elton lifted the pace of their game and pushed plenty of players forward, but still couldn't get a shot past the keeper. The pressure to score increased and play in the midfield was frantic. Nicola Adamson and Lucy Cook were cutting out passes all over the place and really frustrating the opposition, while Jenny Worth was all over the pitch, defending one moment, doing her mazy dribbles around 2 or 3 players and then in the blink of an eye sending the ball up the other end of the pitch to put Stockport on the attack again. The game really opened up and it was the experience of centre forward Lisa Horbury that proved to be decisive in this match as she found the space in the opposition's circle to score twice in quick succession. Bury & Elton looked stunned and never really found a way back into the game after that. In the final five minutes another Stockport move resulted in Clare Atherton getting her second goal as she chipped the ball in at the post and made the final result 4-0 to Stockport.

A brilliant result and very well played everyone.

PoM Gemma Cook