In de-tox after their trip to Magaluff

Some of our 1st team players were still in de-tox after their trip to Magaluff, and perhaps a little under par this week. Stockport started well, with some promising attacks and forcing the Uni goalie to save. However, the Uni scored first with a converted Penalty Stroke awarded when the ball hit a defender’s foot on the goal-line. Birthday girl, Lisa Horbury soon pulled us back level when she won the ball in the tackle on the left side of the circle, and then beat the keeper from a tight angle.

Unfortunately a defender’s foot was our undoing for the second Uni goal when a strike on goal took a wicked deflection off a foot and flew up into the top of the goal, leaving the keeper with no chance. The opposition rallied and began to control the midfield and before half time they pulled the lead to 3-1.

The second half was much better for Stockport. The defence was more secure and the midfield started to work as a unit. Up front, Lisa pressured the opposition defence on the ball and won possession in key areas. Jenny Worth and Clare Atherton made excellent runs with the ball from midfield and chances began to come. Amy got tumbled over in the circle and was unlucky not be awarded a penalty stroke. Dunners had another excellent chance one-on-one with the keeper, but ran out of pitch before she could get a shot on goal. The Uni were conceding short corners under the pressure, but Stockport’s routines broke down too easily. A frustrated Amy picked up a yellow card for a stick tackle, leaving Stockport down to 10 players for 5 minutes, but when she returned to the pitch she put in 100 % effort to make amends for her team mates. Any other week, we’d have been putting away our chances, but this week it just didn’t come off. Frustrating, yes, but we were certainly never out of the game, but have some areas we need to improve on.
 
PoM Jenny Worth