AFC Newbury Girls Football Under 12
Match Report -- Season 2002-3
PHYL Under 12 Girls 29th March 2003
Calleva A 3 AFC Newbury 4
A truly excellent game worthy of the last league match of the season. At the start of the game Calleva were in second place in the league 1 point ahead of Newbury in third place. As Newbury had conceeded the home game earlier in the season due to sickness the teams had not played each other this season. The game started with Calleva attacking with Newbury in numbers but this left the Calleva defence exposed to the long ball from Carly in goal to Rachel who was only marked by a single defender. Rachel was unlucky early on not to get Newbury off to the ideal start. Later in the first half Rachel did get Newbury into the lead but Calleva equalised to make the score 1-1 at half time.

The game continued to be very close with both teams having scoring opportunities but both goalkeepers were playing well and the Newbury defence was holding up against the very attaching formation of Calleva who often had 3 players in the Newbury goal area. For a corner early in the second half Calleva brought all their players forward which unfortunately resulted in Rachel scoring an own goal. This only seemed to spur Newbury on and Rachel scored 2 more gaols to make the score 3-2. Calleva then scored an excellent goal from a move down the right hand side of the pitch an a cross which the attacker hit first time giving Carly no chance in goal. With about 3 minutes to go Rachel scored the winner which led to an exciting last few minutes as Newbury hung on for the well deserved win and league runners up position.

Both teams played well and and game was played in excellent spirit. The Newbury spectators all reckoned that this was the best team Newbury performance of the season, all six players contributed. Carly was again dominant in goal, Poppy and Fi worked well together and Zoe again produced intelligent passes and subtle touches, one of which directly lead to a gaol by Rachel. Grace was all over the pitch.

Players: Carly, Fi, Poppy, Grace, Zoe, Rachel M
Goalscorer: Rachel (4)