Holmes chapel hurricanes - Upton Blacks

Upton blacks - play in a medium shade of blue. More strength up front (blonde wingers number 24, number 9) and another centre forward brunette, strong shots. Their first keeper was seemingly not their usual keeper (number 24). CM player swapped at half time and took over in goal, and had the ability to kick a long ball.

First half was frantic at times as both teams tried to settle into the match. As a result the ball pinged about a bit in the air and some passes were taken perhaps too quickly. We lacked a little composure and would have had more success playing the ball calmly on the floor.

We directed most of the play on the left wing (Lucy) which they set up to defend with some success. There was space available on the right (Courtney) as their left back was not the strongest. Fair to say that we dominated most of the play in the first half.

They had one strong shot on target that Dodge punched away. They set up well for corners and for throw ins but could not convert due to our strong defence. Fern returned to the team and had success calmly dribbling out from the back (RB) giving us an excellent extra option going forward. Charlotte (RB) man marked well, listening to instructions and applied them throughout the match with one great goal stopping block in the first half!

GK kicks from us not great (Dodge takes full accountability!). Need to use a mixture of options and work at during training.

Half time we talked about being more composed and we started bright and confidently. Much more composure and joined up play and the result was, 3 mins after the break, a goal courtesy of Katie at the 2nd time of asking, assisted by Fern (RW) who poached the ball from their LB.

During the last 10 mins Upton were throwing everything at the game trying to play between the LB and CB particularly from the long ball. They had an attacking overload starting from their CF who played it out to the wings but they had no success thanks to some excellent strong challenges and interceptions from Al (LB) and Gemma (CB).

The one shot they had on target in the second half from the right winger no9 was tipped over the bar by Dodge. We managed the remaining minutes really well and it was a top all round team performance 👏🏻

Ian's POTM Gemma - solid and reassuring presence at the back, didn't put a foot wrong 🤝