The Eagles took a squad of 11 girls to this away game in Epsom on a bright and mild morning. The match was played on a 4G Astro and the fast bounce of the ball suited the Eagles girls very well.
The first five minutes of the game were quite chaotic as both sets of players struggled to get to grips with the high bounce of the ball but this soon settled into a fast flowing game. Both teams had early attacks but the opposition were frustrated by the assured defence of Ruby, Tabs and Heidi who covered each other well and looked solid, repeatedly breaking up attacks and moving the ball out to the wings. Heidi had her strongest game yet for the Eagles with her tackling and game awareness – she always seemed to be in the right place at the right time to break up attacks. Tabs was immense, frequently making tackles and moving with the ball into midfield and Ruby used her power to send the ball over the halfway line at every opportunity.
In midfield Ella continued to put pressure on the Epsom and Ewell players, forcing mistakes and pouncing on loose balls. Ria and Maeve worked tirelessly down the sides of the pitch, chasing back in defence and using their speed to launch attacks. Lyla showed some lovely touches on the ball and played several perfectly paced passes to Freya and Ria to run onto as the Eagles passing game started to flow.
Halfway through the half Maeve beat her opposite player and pushed the ball between defenders for Freya to accelerate into the penalty area and shoot low into the corner to put the Eagles ahead. A few minutes later Lyla turned and fired a blistering shot that seemed destined to be a goal but the Epsom and Ewell keeper got an outstretched boot to it.
At the other end the opposition started to make good use of a couple of their powerful players to dribble at the Albury girls. On nearly every occasion the calm defending of the Eagles back three broke this up and the threat passed. However one lovely move from the Epsom midfield saw their centre forward put through on goal only to be denied by an outstanding save by Seren, who had a wonderful morning in goal.
After all the hard running of the first 20 minutes, the Eagles used their bench to bring Cassidy and Isabel into the game and they slotted into the pace of the match quickly and effectively. The half ended 1-0 to the Eagles but not before Freya nearly scored a second and Ruby had a free kick that whistled over the crossbar.
The Eagles started the second half a little lethargically, despite being warned at halftime that the game was in the balance. Within the first five minutes Seren had come to the rescue with another fine block and this seemed to walk the eagles up. From then on they dominated the half. The ball was continually pushed out wide and Freya, Maeve, Lyla, Ria, Cassidy and Ella made lung busting runs to beat defenders and get crosses into the box. The pressure began to tell and Freya, who had a very strong game leading the line, scored three goals in quick succession. The second of these goals was finished off after a blistering run from Maeve and a lovely through ball. Freya’s pace, passing and shooting was too hot for the opposition to handle and she finished the game with her first hat trick for the Eagles.
Epsom and Ewell started the day on the same number of points as the Eagles so the team knew that this would be a hard game. However, they produced their most compelling performance of the season in every position on the pitch with determined defence, accurate passing, full commitment and some dead eyed finishing. To hear them all communicating so well with each other and play with such confidence was fantastic and another huge step forward.

Star Players : Freya and Heidi