Report

Today's match saw Rutherford Ladies take on league opponents Billingham Town F.C in the subsidiary cup.


The weather was the usual british kind filled with rain and cold temperatures which meant that the pitch wasn't in the best playing condition especially seen as the previous sunday morning saw a semi final take place and that churned the pitch up even more. The near goal mouth was filled with water and the referee was considering postponing the match due to the state. Billingham wanted to play the fixture as they had travelled all this way so the goal mouthed was cleared as best as possible.


The game didn't start well for us at all, the short warm up clearly affected our game and because Billingham had a few shots straight from the whistle we seemed to panic and forget how to play football. Goal keeper Tasha Briggs played in the slippery goal mouth first half and with a fantastic strike from the Billingham forward we went 1-0 down. There was nothing Tasha could have done about this finish but due the conditions she tried extremely hard.  


Due to waiting around for the oppositions to come and agree to play the game on the water logged pitch our team did not get a very long or decent warm up. This resulted in centre midfielder Kerrie Moorhead pulling her hamstring ten minutes in the games which resulted in a second early goal from Billingham Town who took advantage of Kerrie lying on the ground trying to stretch her injury off but cause they played on Kerrie got back up to defend the goal which made the referee disallow our offside shout. Had Kerrie have stayed down the goal would not have been counted but its another learning curve for the squad and teaches us not to play fair as other teams clearly don't.      


A substitute was made for Kerrie Morrhead where Nicola 'Titch' Fell came on as left back pushing well deserved player of the match Catherine Tonge into centre midfield, a position the young grafter has never played before but what a fantastic job she did. Catherine carried an injury form the previous game and was advised to not play this fixture by the club physio, but stubborn Catherine played without a bother from her injury and played out of her skin giving 100% as usual.


We conceeded another goal almost straight after the first and the teams heads started to drop. They were getting frustrated with themselves and each other but regardless of this they never conceeded again through out the rest of the first half and even had a good few attempts at goal with right back Nicola 'Titch' Fell's shot being saved narrowly by the Billingham keeper.


Come half time the team was in need for an uplifting team talk. I reminded the girls that they are new squad only put together a few months ago and have played only five games together whereas the other team will have had at the very least this season to bond together. They were getting down about making mistakes so I pointed out that they are all still learning and developing so they will make mistakes but thats how we learn, they have been getting beat in double figures and not even getting near the oppositions goal but today they are only loosing by three goals and are starting to pressure at goal and almost scoring. Football in general but especially at this standard is about having fun and enjoying it not winning and the team needed reminding of that.


The second half was much better the entire team went out with a completely different and positive attitude. They were challenging back not getting shoved off the ball, they were playing some great football with brilliant passing and moving, had shots at goal, defended more confidently and most importantly were enjoying the game.


Billingham were under pressure now and their cocky attitudes soon changed as they knew we were getting closer and closer to goal. Around twenty minutes into the second half Billingham won a freekick just outside the 18 yard box and scored. This was slightly dissapointing since we had played so well but another learning curve for the team in how we need to mark up better.


The rest of the match was pretty much dominated by our side, we got back into the game and played some brilliant and exciting football. The improvement in the team is phenominal and although there is a long way to go I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.


A very impressive performance by the whole squad!!!




Match Report by Team Manager Sara Coxon