Open Women 4 Beaumaris 3 - 25th July 2010
After a disappointing draw last week with the second bottom side the Knox Open Age Women’s side was looking for some form against the bottom side Beaumaris at the Beaumaris Reserve. At the home game Knox had only managed a draw despite dominating play.
Conditions on the day were good for football and although missing most of our normal defensive players the women and coach were confident that we could still get the job done.
From the start Knox were a bit slow out of the blocks and Beaumaris were quick to capitalise when their striker broke down the wing and outpaced the cover and headed towards the goal to calmly slot the ball into the back of the net from a tight angle. This happened within the first 5 minutes. This seemed to spark Knox into life and they set up camp in their attacking third for about a period of 15 minutes. Knox had shot after shot but the Beaumaris defence worked hard and the Knox attack couldn’t get an equalizer with shots going wide and being cleared from the line or saved by the keeper. We even saw a ball roll across the full width of the goal line only needing a small blade of grass to turn it in it was that close but to no avail.
Beaumaris then got back a period of control and on the 27th minute the hardworking striker for Beaumaris again broke the defence beating the offside trap and claimed a 2nd goal.
Once again Knox went on the attack but could still not find the back of the net. The players, coach and supporters were showing severe signs of frustration and the quality of our play was suffering accordingly. Our defence was getting worked over severely and on the 38th minute the Beaumaris striker raced on to a long clearance to calmly slot in a third goal and Knox had still not troubled the scorer despite having 70% of the play. Half time came as a relief as we were 3 – 0 down and looking very much out of sorts.
At half time coach Barry Marshall decided on some wholesale positional changes with the major change being to move Natalia Hawa into a more attacking role from the defence and Amanda Moon out of defence into midfield and Courteney Russell from wide left mid to sweeper. The women new that there was 45 minutes of hard work in front of them.
From the kick off with the sun at their back Knox went straight into attack and the changes had an almost immediate impact. What little ball came to Beaumaris was quickly plundered and the hardworking Natalia worked her way through the defence of Beaumaris and shot the ball wide of the keeper to see it nestle nicely in the back of the net. 2 minutes from restart of the half and we had our first goal. The confidence went up and the whole team was looking more composed than what they had been at any time in the whole of the first half. The Beaumaris team restarted play and went to again push through the middle but the combination of Hawa, Moon and Holmes were starting to control the middle and the defensive players were getting a much easier time of it. With the pressure now firmly pushing the game into the Beaumaris defensive area Knox were starting to really trouble the Beaumaris defence and it only took another 6 minutes before their hard work was again rewarded when Angelia Georgiou received the ball wide on the left, skirted the defence and raced in towards goal to calmly put the ball wide of the keeper and hit the back of the net again. Score was now 2 – 3 and Knox was back in the game with a vengeance and still 37 minutes to go. From here on for the next 16 minutes Knox turned up the pressure and kept the linesman busy as their eagerness saw them in too many offside plays however Knox was taking a strangle hold on the middle of the park and every time Beaumaris tried to progress through the middle the play was quickly turned around to again put Knox on the attack. After a period of sustained pressure and a resultant corner Knox set up to again attack with gusto. The ball was sent in by Angelia Georgiou and Beaumaris failed to clear successfully and after several swipes the ball fell to Mallory Tyrrell who deftly put the ball in the back of the net. Score 3 all and 20 minutes left to play.
Beaumaris had learnt that going through the middle was not working and from the 3rd restart went wide and they finally progressed into the Knox defensive third but the defence held up and they were not able to really attack the Knox goal effectively. On the 2 occasions that the Beaumaris striker managed to break free from Andrea Georgiou (who had been containing her in the second half) and break the defence the pace of Couteney Russell was equal to the task and Courteney on a couple of occasions pushed the striker wide and then calmly dispossessed her of the ball relieving any pressure. For the next quarter of an hour it became a real struggle with Knox starting to get impatient again and not watching their off sides and the Beaumaris defence worked over time to keep Knox from scoring the decisive blow. It looked like we were going to end up with draw no 6 in a row as the clock ticked down. The majority of the play was now played in the Beaumaris half and Natalia Hawa thought she had scored the winner with 5 minutes to go only for the linesman to spoil the celebration when she was flagged off side. The Knox team did not have long to wait though and at the 87th minute Chelsea Marshall rode a solid challenge to break through out wide and then scooted towards goal where she beat the keeper and put the game in our hands. With 3 minutes to go we had finally taken the lead which was not relinquished and the final score ending up 4 – 3 to Knox. A great come from behind finish and certainly a game of 2 halves. All players contributed strongly in the second half but Clare Lucas played her usual solid game right through as did Amanda, Angelia, and Chelsea.