On a bright and sunny day, two Amesbury U9 girls football teams went to Longacre school to compete in their first ever football tournament. It was a fast-paced tournament with little rest between games. The first team out onto the pitch were the Eagles. Right from the get go the girls were in it to win it and their tenacity and high work rate paid off, as Florence put in a goal to open the scoring. At the other end of the field Meredith had to make a quick reaction save to keep her team in front with just 20 seconds to go!
The Eagles managed to come away with a 1-0 win over the Longacre Tigers which was a great effort for their first game. The Hawks started their first game at the conclusion of the Eagles game and despite coming close to scoring on multiple occasions neither team was able to break the deadlock. Maisy and Claudia had a great game and showed their quality. The Eagles has a solid run of results with a 1-0 loss against Greenfield (eventual winners of the tournament) a 1-1 draw with Ripley Court and a 1-0 win over the Longacre Pumas.
The Hawks also had a good run of results drawing their game against the Longacre Lions 0-0 and then winning their next game 2-0 against Belmont (who ended up coming second in the tournament). However a lossless group stage was not to be as the Hawks went down 1-0 to the Longacre Cheetahs. After a successful group stage for both teams, the Eagles found themselves in the 3rd and 4th playoff and the Hawks had made the 5th and 6th playoff.
The Hawks playoff was first. The team showed great resilience to keep their opposition scoreless thanks to some great goal keeping by Sophie and solid defense by Lily and Emily. Chances started to open up at the other end of the pitch for our Hawks and Chloe almost took one of these chances when she hit the upright. Tireless running up and down the field from Victoria ensured that if the opposition wanted a goal then they were going to have to work hard for it. After a long battle the Hawks went down 1-0 with just one minute to go. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and the game ended in a 1-0 loss placing the Hawks in a very commendable 6th place!
The final game of the day for Amesbury was the Eagles 3rd and 4th playoff. This proved to be a very intense game. Right from the kick off it was a one sided game with Eagles dominating every third of the pitch. Tidy defending from Francessca and Milly ensured that the team were able to spend most of the game attacking. A strong and skillful set of midfielders in Izzy and Yzzy saw them dominate their opposition and create a number of goal scoring opportunities for their team mates. During the game the team were able to put away 2 goals through Yzzy and managed not to conceded any which left them 2-0 victors. So the Eagles finished in a suprising but well deserved 3rd place!
Congratulations to both teams on a very fun and successful day.
Mr McKenzie, Gap Student
