U14 Girls Dev7s Vs EH T3 championships

A county weekend meant a few changes to the SNHC's U14 girls team for their outing to Cambridge Nomads to meet Nomads, Cambridge City and Felixstowe. The team welcomed back Louise Abel in defense and introduced Lily MacKenzie and Sophie Hawkes in midfield, with three games of 30 minutes each, 7-aside on half pitches.

The first game playing Nomads started slowly with solid tackling from the older Nomads girls, who played the first half without a goalie. However, the 8 on-pitch players made it harder work for the Saints who couldn't convert a goal. End to end play continued with both teams missing chances, until a little after half time when a Nomads shot deflected off the post and past Saints keeper Tara Bell, who was very disappointed after her hard work tracking shots on goal. Midfielders Sophie Hawkes and Georgie Bettsworth tried for goal several times, whilst the St Neots defence battled hard to keep the ball away from Tara, with some great tackling and following up from Charlotte Simmons. Despite a very even game St Neots came away with a 1-0 loss with Sophie H awarded MoM by the opposition due to some great solo work keeping the ball.

St Neots then played Cambridge City, also missing some regulars due to county committments. A very different game with St Neots punished time after time for weak, slow passing of the ball as City's skills at reading the game and intercepting proved dominant. The first City goal came from another rebound from the post but St Neots battled back, finally using the width of the pitch, allowing some great solo runs from Georgie up the wing. With Katy Lloyd and Nellie Purser waiting for the crosses it was only a matter of time before one of them popped one in, with Katy finally sweeping one past the City goalie, after coming close several times. The St Neots defensive force of Katie Pye, Louise and Charlotte just gets better each time they play with some superb tackling and tracking of attacking players. Some work is required on improving hit strength but Katie improvised with some good solo work to get the ball through and Charlotte and Louise kept up the pressure on the attackers as they moved in on the circle. Finally City made a superb strike on the far post on an attacking short corner finishing the match with a 2-1 win. A well deserved MoM award to Charlotte from the opposition.

The final match of the afternoon was Felixstowe. A strong start from St Neots was marred by an injury to Lily who had to come off, having provided great support in midfield in all the matches and an occasional brilliant foray to centre forward, unheard of from the normal defender. However, Katy provided some excellent solo play in midfield throughout the game, intercepting balls and tackling to keep the pressure on Felixstowe, providing great through balls for Sophie Gurnell who was determined to get a goal, both girls coming close to goal on several occasions. Finally a cross from Sophie H provided Sophie G with a perfect opportunity to get the first goal, quickly followed up by some hard work by Nellie Purser who scored her first goal of the afternoon, earning huge cheers from the parent supporters on the sidelines. Felixstowe came back fighting and came close on several occasions with Tara and her defenders working hard to clear the ball and getting plenty of short corner pracrice. Sophie H drew gasps of admiration for a high attacking short corner strike on goal before Sophie G finished the match with her second goal, earning St Neots a 3-0 win.

Congratulations to Louise Abel, Charlotte Simmons, Tara Bell, Katie Pye, Georgie Bettsworth, Sophie Hawkes, Lily MacKenzie, Katy Lloyd, Nellie Purser and Sophie Gurnell for a great morning's play and to our parent supporters for standing in a cold wind and keeping up the positivity. Special mention to Charlotte's Dad who expects to hear about his brilliant daughter for the foreseeable future due to her MoM award.