MATCH REPORT

U13 Girls reach County Cup Final

27th February 2024

 

Rugby Borough 3 v 1 Market Bosworth

Sundays game was the much anticipated County Cup Semi Final.  After last weeks postponement due to the weather the fixture was reversed and so the magnificent Nationwide Windows Arena was the venue.

To add to the occasion both teams were able to walk out from the changing rooms, we were led out by Captain Isla, to play on the impressive 3G pitch, which had been marked out especially for the day.

Rugby Borough were very aware that Market Bosworth would be bringing their ‘A’ game after our league victory a few weeks ago.  With this in mind our girls ‘bolted out of the gate’ with some lovely 1:2 passes and an excellent through ball from Ruby, Megan latched onto the ball and held off numerous defenders before sliding the ball past the on rushing goal keeper to score in under 10 seconds.

This was a great start to a highly entertaining match, Market Bosworth really did bring the game to us, our defenders had to work hard throughout the whole game with Ava, Peyton and Faith all keeping things tight at the back at various stages in the first half.   Rugby were still carrying a threat with going forward with Isla, Ruby & Anna linking up well in search of that second goal. We were missing an injured Chloe in goal, this saw Freya step up to take her place, she was called into action a few times and made some outstanding saves to keep the score at 1:0 at half time.

The second half started with our opponents dominating early and despite some dogged defending Market Bosworth got the equaliser.  The visitors then had another good chance but a superb last ditch tackle from Ese saved the day.  The momentum was with the visitors but a couple of positional changes were made to add some extra pace to the Rugby Borough attack & this started to pay off with Jess linking up wonderfully with Anna & Lexie on the wings to bring a more attacking threat. 

The game was starting to become end to end at this point with both teams pushing for the win.  With 5 minutes left & the prospect of penalties looming our wonderful defence won the ball back, sent it up the pitch where Ruby controlled the ball and with great vision sent another through ball to exactly where she knew Lexie would race up the wing to be, Lexie sprinted onto the ball and from far out left struck the ball into the bottom corner of their net.

Even at 2-1 no one could relax, Market Bosworth kept pushing, Mia made some crucial interceptions at the back to keep the ball away from goal, then within the last remaining minutes another of Ruby’s passes saw Lexie through on goal again, she kept her calm as their keeper came running towards her and timed her shot perfectly to make the final score 3-1.

A brilliant performance from the girls who had to dig deep at times but also showed enormous quality to score 3 excellent goals and become the first Rugby Borough team to make it into the Final of the Leicestershire County Cup.

Player of the match goes to Lexie for 2 wonderful finishes to secure the win.

U13 Girls reach County Cup Final | Rugby Borough FC