16th September

Greater Manchester Team Match Report

 IT’S A LOSING START FOR REDDISH

After a long summer break, it was time for the girls to get back into the swing of playing. The first game of the 2006-07 season was against Didsbury Northern 3rds and it was another first with new captain Rachel Dunley and vice captain Lucy Cook, who would both look to lead by example and hope to have a positive season. There were also Reddish debuts for Andrea Gilson and Penny Maughan.

It was Didsbury who had the better start, attacking Reddish right from the off. Large gaps were evident in the middle of the pitch and were exploited by Didsbury’s central players. The Reddish defence was tested early with low shots from various places around the D but goal keeper Julie Gavin was extremely alert and kept the ball at bay.

Reddish were under extreme pressure and the strong defence was eventually broken, in a seemingly harsh manner with a deflected shot from open play making the score one-nil to Didsbury. This gave Didsbury the upper hand and they quickly capitalised and scored a second goal, this time from a short corner. A strong shot from the top of the D doubled the lead and despite holding firm for thirty minutes, Reddish now found themselves two-nil down.

The Reddish forwards tried to counter attack on a number of occasions but kept being pushed back into their own half by strong runs from the Didsbury wing players. Didsbury got their third goal of the game just before the half time break. This left Reddish with a lot to do in the second half if they were to rescue anything from this game.

The second half was a lot more positive from the Reddish perspective as the forwards and midfield used the wing players a lot more and runs from Jenny Plant down the left were effective in getting the ball in the Didsbury section of the pitch and earning Reddish a number of long corners. Reddish were unable to capitalise though and Didsbury stepped up their game and the play was mostly in the Reddish half again.

This was definitely a game for the Reddish defence to shine and there were strong performances from Maggie Fiddler and Adele Lumsden who constantly battled with the Didsbury forwards to ensure Reddish did not go four goals behind. Unfortunately a well placed reverse stick shot from a Didsbury forward put Reddish four goals to nil down mid way through the second half.

The last quarter of the game saw Reddish play a lot more positively with Lucy Cook driving the ball up to the forwards, enabling pressure to be applied to the Didsbury defence. Reddish did eventually have the ball in the back of the net with a half volley shot from Dunners but the ball was judged to have been dangerously high and was disallowed. Towards the end of the game Reddish were a lot more constructive and the ball spent most of the time in the Didsbury half. If the girls play as positive as they did in the last ten minutes the rest of the season, the future looks bright.

MOM – Julie Gavin