With the clocks having gone forward overnight, a 10am kick off felt particularly early for all involved on Sunday morning
The Eagles had a squad of just 10 player for the match with several players away for the Easter holidays. This led to a change in formation with Tabs moving out of defence and into a holding midfield position and as the match developed, most of the team ended up playing in a variety of positions.
Ewell currently sit in second place in the league and despite the Eagles having a comfortable win over them several months ago, the team that came to the Heath were on a run of good form and were certainly the strongest team to have played the Eagles so far this season.
From the kick off the Ewell side dominated possession and the Eagles were on the back foot – forced to defend and chase the ball for long periods. Within the first 20 minutes, Lyla, who had a fantastic game in goal, had pulled off a couple of great saves and the Ewell forward line had created a series of chances that they couldn’t convert.
But as the half progressed, the Eagles got into the game. Tabs showed great understanding of the unfamiliar role she was asked to play and started to break up the Ewell attacks and move the ball forward with some powerful runs. Molly, Cassidy and Bonnie got themselves into the game in midfield and the contest became more even with Maeve making good progress down the left hand side using her speed to beat players and Freya starting to get behind the Ewell defence. After one clever run she took a powerful shot from outside the area and the Ewell goalie pulled off a quite brilliant save. With Heidi having an immense game on the left side of defence ably supported by Ria in central defence and Ruby on the right, the Ewell team started to look frustrated. However, two lovely attacking moves in quick succession saw the Ewell forwards dribble through the Eagles defence and finish clinically to put them 2-0 up at halftime.
The second half was a different story altogether as the Eagles changed their formation and they started to win the 50:50 challenges and move the ball more accurately up the field. Freya continued to cause problems for the Ewell defence and yet more great goalkeeping prevented the Eagles from pulling one back. Ruby was pushed in to the forward line and had a shot narrowly miss, Bonnie almost scored when her knee connected to a rebound and when this was pushed clear by the keeper, Cassidy made contact with the ball and it went in – just to have been adjudged to have handballed it. But the Eagles were beginning to get on top.
The game was now played predominantly in the Ewell half and slick passing from Bonnie, Heidi Cassidy and Molly kept pushing the Ewell team back. With the Eagles now winning more of the challenges thanks to Tabs, Ruby Heidi and Ria, the Eagles were on top. When the ball was pushed through to Freya between defenders she shot into the back of the net to make the score line 2-1. Then a pivotal point in the game saw Freya tripped in the penalty area as she beat a defender but the challenge was waved away and play continued to the disappointment of the Eagles coaching team. To then rub salt into the wounds Ewell forced a turnover in midfield and a slight miscommunication in defence saw their forward nip in and score Ewell’s third of the morning. The game finished with further waves of Eagles attacks but no goals.
Despite the loss it was by far their best performance of the season against a very good team who have designs on winning the league. Many of the girls were asked to play in unfamiliar positions during the game and all of them rose to the challenge, which is a huge positive.

Star Players : Heidi and Lyla
Parents’ Player : Lyla