Playing at full throttle

Despite the cold wind at the Armitage Centre, Stockport were playing at full throttle from the start of this match. Rachel, Jenny, Lucy R and Charlie dominated the midfield. Quick passing down the left side of the pitch put Jenny W in the space to dribble past the opposition’s defence and her shot into the top corner of the goal was a blinder. A minute later, in a similar move, Jenny carved a way through the defence and this time side-stepped the keeper to score a second goal. Thereafter, the opposition were always chasing the game. They plugged the holes in their defence and their best opportunity of the half came on a short corner, but Adele’s quick reactions cleared the ball off the line.

In the second half, it was Didsbury who started the stronger, as they looked to pressure the player on the ball. Their tactics were effective, as Stockport struggled to pass the ball accurately, were losing possession too easily, and conceding short corners. The momentum was with Didsbury and after a series of short corners they eventually found a way to beat the defence with a deflected shot. Stockport raised their game in response to conceding a goal. The midfield started to link up with the forwards (and Charlie started passing the ball to her own team!). An excellent passage of play with a series of passes down the right resulted in a ball crossed into the circle to Lisa. Her shot was saved, but Jenny W followed up on the rebound to score her hat-trick. It took an excellent reflex save from the Didsbury keeper to deny Stockport a fourth goal when Lisa gave two defenders the slip in the circle, and connected with 40 metre pass from Amy. When Didsbury scored near the end, Stockport had a tricky 5 minutes to deal with but held on to the 3-2 lead to win.
 
PoM - ?
the opposition didn’t say, but should be Jenny W for scoring all 3 Stockport goals