Dink, dink, dink, dink, bang

Both teams started equally positively, and the first half was 'end to end stuff' from the outset.  Stockport's midfield and forward line started as they were to go on, maintaining width and sending very accurate, fluid passes to team mates 'calling' and moving into position very effectively.   Stockport scored first: Lisa Horbury connecting with one of the great passes that had been zipping across and into the heart of Elton's D.  Elton responded, scoring first with a speedy charge onto a pass that made Stockport's defence look a bit static and secondly from a short corner - the Elton player's lifted shot was good if it was instinctive, and very impressive if it was deliberate!  Stockport, however, immediately began to re-apply the pressure and equalized with another goal from Lisa Horbury to go into the break 2-2.

In the second half, Stockport's determination not to be 'flustered' by an obviously fired-up opposition and to play our own game really began to bear fruit.  Jen Worth delivered all game on the plan to draw Elton players to her and then exploit the gaps opening up as a result.  Elton must have felt at times as though they were facing one of those zombies that refuse to die however many times you shoot them as Jenny repeatedly not only drew 3, 4 or even 5 Elton players to her but kept going even when their defence verged on obstruction.  Lisa Hughes, Rachel Dunley and Clare Atherton kept Elton stretched out with terrific positioning and clean passing across the width of the pitch, and Laura Murphy, Lucy Rowbottom and Lucy Cook helped ensure increasing dominance in midfield with a superior reading of the game that often frustrated Elton's attack and provided a platform for Stockport's counter.  In defence, Kelly Shore's persistence, Helen Elcock's composure, Maureen Murphy's apparent 'force field' and some decent saves from the keeper ensured that Elton were denied the goals that might have got them back into the game.  As it was, Lisa Horbury scored her hat-trick with a goal early in the half, Jenny Worth gave us a cushion by scoring herself after assisting the previous three, Debbie Mole bolstered the attack and got our fifth and Jen sealed it with a sixth which summed up Stockport's performance: a save from an Elton short-corner, quick, intelligent passes from defence through midfield to attack and in.  As Lisa Horbury said: dink, dink, dink, dink, bang!  An assured win from a team really starting to communicate and perform to its real ability. 

POM - Jen Worth