13/4/08 - Cimla 4 Landore 2

It’s been a busy weekend for the girls with 2 league games in 3 days. On Friday evening we visited one of the title challengers Llangyfelach and were unlucky to come away with a 2-0 loss.

In an evenly contested first half we held our own against a much bigger and stronger Llangyfelach team and were unlucky to concede a goal when they broke free towards the end of the half and finished well past our keeper to take a 1-0 half time lead. In the second half we pushed forward looking for an equaliser and went close on a number of occasions with Holly Jarvis, Chelsey Harris and Sophia Rees all having chances. However we were unable to find the equaliser that our play deserved. At the other end our defence of Lucia O’Shea, Kimberly McClarnon and Georgia Davies held firm making some good tackles and they were backed up by Bethany Harvey in goal who made some fine saves. Then as we continued to push forward after dominating much of the second half Llangyfelach broke and scored a second goal with the last kick of the game.

In a game in which we deserved at least a draw the girls showed that we are now able to compete with the strongest teams in the league and with only a few games left of this season should be confident of improving further by next year.

On Sunday we hosted a much improved Landore team. The first half was closely contested but the Landore centre forward was a constant threat and eventually they broke free and finished well to take a 1-0 lead. Our girls did not drop their heads and continued to battle and were rewarded when Holly Jarvis scored an excellent solo goal just before half-time. She attacked down the right before cutting in and beating 2 or 3 Landore defenders and then finishing confidently to give a half-time score of 1-1.

At half-time we made a few tactical changes putting Georgia Davies into the centre of defence to try and control the Landore centre forward. Georgia was outstanding in the second half making numerous tackles to limit the opportunities for the visiting team, assisted by Rhiannon Edwards and Emily Havard who also defended well. At the other end we continued to push forward with Kayhlan Norgrove, Hayley Needs and Jessica Cooper and took the lead with another excellent solo effort this time from Sophia Rees who ran at the Landore defence and then finished well to put us into a 2-1 lead. A few minutes later Charlotte Smith finished well to put us into a 3-1 lead half-way through the second half but to give the Landore girls credit they continued to try and play football and with 5 minutes remaining scored to reduce the score to 3-2 and make the last 5 minutes very tense. However Charlotte Smith again showed excellent skills to control the ball and finish well for her second of the game to put the game safe at 4-2. In their dying seconds Charlotte almost completed her hat-trick but was denied by a last gasp tackle by the Landore defence.

This was an excellent performance with everyone giving 100% to ensure we finished our last home game of the season with a well deserved victory - well done.