On a sunny autumn morning at Albury Heath, the U13 Eagles welcomed Cobham Rebels for the return league fixture, having lost 1-0 to them last week. The Albury girls came into the game determined, and what followed was an exciting, hard-fought contest that swung back and forth until the final whistle.
Cobham started the brighter of the two teams, putting the Eagles’ defence under early pressure. Their persistence paid off midway through the half when some confusion at the back left the ball free in the penalty area, and a Rebels striker pounced to fire home the opener which just avoided Seren’s full length dive.
The setback seemed to spark Albury into life. From that point on, the Eagles grew into the game, pressing higher up the pitch with Ella, Bonnie and Ria chasing everything and linking play well through midfield to Freya and Lyla who always looked threatening in attack. As the half drew on Albury started to dominate the game with the defence of Heidi and Ruby anticipating Cobham through balls and Tabs, in particular, closing down their tall centre forward meaning Seren had little to do in goal.
Midway through the half Isabel and Maeve came on in midfield and quickly got into the fast pace of the game. The breakthrough came just before half time: from an Albury corner, the ball was cleared only as far as Heidi , who had pushed forward from defence and she struck it first time from the edge of the box. The ball flew into the top corner of the net — a quite spectacular goal to level the scores at 1–1 going into the break.
The second half began with Cobham scoring from another scrappy moment in the Albury penalty area following a throw-in. As the ball ricocheted off several players the rebels capitalised on momentary hesitation in the Eagles’ defence to poke the ball home. But rather than Albury heads dropping they showed real resilience and belief that they could get back into the game. They battled for every ball, defended strongly at the back, and kept pushing forward. Ella was an absolute menace in midfield, chasing down everything and winning battles against girls twice her size!
With around five minutes to play, the reward arrived. Lyla, who had worked hard throughout the game, broke free with a superb run, holding off the Cobham defence before calmly slotting the ball past the advancing goalkeeper to make it 2–2. The closing stages were end-to-end, but neither side could find a winner.
This was a fair result between two evenly matched teams, with both sides playing their part in a thrilling game. The Eagles can be proud of their pressing, tireless running in midfield, and solid defensive effort. Most importantly, the spirit was excellent — heads stayed up even when behind, and the team fought to the very end.
Star Player : Ella