Sunday morning saw our Rugby Borough U13 girls travel to Ashby Ivanhoe to play in the second round of the County Cup.  After having lots of League games postponed recently and only being able to play friendlies, it was good to see the team in their usual formation, unlike last week when the girls played upside down and back to front with our forwards playing in defence and vice versa, including our keeper Chloe having a turn on the wing.

Unfortunately this weekend both of our usual strikers were unavailable, so Jess stepped up to start in that role and what a start it was!  The girls came out quickly and within two minutes Anna crossed a lovely ball into the box, their keeper got a hand to it but Jess was right there to fire in the rebound.  This was the start of a plethora of goals dotted in between some glorious play by the whole team.

Ava played a delightful ball over the top of their defenders  for Jess to run onto, she then used her electric pace to get free before calmly placing the ball into the corner of the net.  Mia was using her peripheral awareness to locate her team mates to make precise passes, one of these found Megan who managed to squeeze the ball into the bottom corner.

On the wing Maisie was travelling well with the ball and putting in numerous good crosses, she found Jess who scored her first hat-trick of the day.  This was closely followed by a pass from Megan out to Maisie who fired her first one home.

By this point I think the opposition knew what was coming when Jess got onto the ball and they would be right, she scores again.

Lexie pushed up from defence, Megan played a ball out to her, she fired the ball forcefully with her left foot to get her first goal of the game.

Chloe had a quiet first half with our defenders clearing any danger, Peyton showed how much stamina she posses with game number 2 this weekend, she’s always there to be relied upon when needed.  Freya proved her versatility by playing in a few different positions, she was showing great determination to win the ball back and play some great forward passes.

The second half started much the same way as the first, Jess dribbled around the oppositions defenders to score her second hat-trick of the morning.  Maisie got back in on the action running with the ball from her own half, passing her markers to score her second goal.  Not many words needed, but Jess scores again!

Faith spent the first half in her usual defensive role, solid as always, but got a turn on the wing in the second half, this proved productive when she played a well timed ball into Jess for Jess to score her 8th goal.  Faith also had some good shots on target which were unluckily saved by the keeper and the post.

Maisie was putting more crosses into the box, one which Megan volleyed into the top corner and another for Anna to pass into the bottom corner.  Ava and the defence continued to push up the pitch and Mia and the midfielders took more shots throughout the game, Ashby’s goal keeper kept working hard and managed to save lots of attempts.  

The last goal of the match came courtesy of a header by Lexie.  A clean sheet for Chloe meant big smiles from all the girls, the coaches and her mum who didn’t need to break out the stain remover.

A big shout out to ‘Coach of the Day’ Ruby who came along to support the girls and did a great job assisting Gary & Matt.

Thank you to our linesmen Conor & Christian.

And a huge WELL DONE to Player of the Match Jess, 8 goals in an out of this world performance!!