At long last, the season has arrived!!! For their first game, the ladies were faced with a tough away match at Wigton to play Abbeytown. As seems to be the norm for the 1st match, we had several key players missing and with Jade on holiday, Tasha stepped up as Captain.
Newlaithes kicked-off into a stiff breeze and were facing uphill but they quickly gained the territorial advantage as Abbeytown sat deep. However Newlaithes made heavy weather of it and gave the ball away on too many occasions as passes went astray. Abbeytown tried to attack on the counter but Abbie was on hand to gather up any through balls comfortably. Newlaithes made the breakthrough after 25 minutes when a Katie O corner from the left found Pat in space in front of goal and she slotted the ball home. Katie O, Faye, Laura W and Pat worked tirelessly in midfield and Holly, Tasha, Sarah C & Chelsea looked solid in defence. Despite coming close, Newlaithes couldn't add to the score so it remained 1-0 at half-time.
Lauren started the 2nd half in place of Laura O who was suffering from blisters. She slotted into defence and Tasha moved into midfield, alowing Faye to join the attack. There was an immediate improvement from Newlaithes as they started to look more comfortable in possession and they increased their lead on 57 minutes when Claire got onto the end of a through ball, fractionally before the Abbeytown keeper. The ball rebounded to Faye who struck the ball firmly, 1st time into the bottom corner from just outside the area. Moments later, Katie O was unlucky to see a shot re-bound off the underside of the bar. Then Tasha battled hard in midfield and played the ball up to Faye on the edge of the box. She drew the defender before laying off the ball for Pat, who was steaming in from the right hand side, to finish into the bottom corner with a 1st time shot. Three minutes later and it was number four as Faye hit a 25 yard screamer into the net, giving the keeper no chance. Three minutes later and it was Faye again as she made space for herself before unleashing another screamer into the top corner for number 5. Then after 73 minutes Laura D, on for Laura W, won the ball in midfield and played it up to Claire who was just inside the area. She turned and completely wrong-footed her marker before slotting the ball home for number 6, completing an amazing five goal blitz in the space of just 16 minutes that left Abbeytown shell-shocked and with no way back. Pat came off to be replaced by Katie J after getting one kick too many and Holly was forced to leave the pitch with an ankle injury to be replaced by Kristina - but not before Abbeytown had pulled one back with 10 minutes to go. With Holly down, Abbeytown took advantage of the space on their left and their forward volleyed home the resulting cross with an excellent finish. Final Score 6-1.
This was an excellent result - the rustiness showed early on but the team began to play with some quality in the 2nd half and to be fair, the scoreline reflected Newlaithes' dominance as apart from the Abbeytown goal, Abbie didn't have a shot to save.
Everyone worked hard and there were a number of excellent performances, however player of the match was Faye for an outstanding robust and skillful performance which led to her hat-trick.
Well done Ladies.
